| abstract | - Coronet. Mired in the dregs of the Empire, neck-deep in Imperial army and Imperial bureaucrats, encased in their glossy black armor and well-pressed uniforms. But the spirit of this most traditional, stubborn and perhaps rebellious planet is strong and cannot be broken, even by this firm and unyielding occupation. And so Aurejin has been here, on the planet, even after the Empire and its agents have identified his marked ship. He has a long history on this planet and has relied on it these past few days, moving furtively but confidently in the city, checking on old friends, collecting information, and providing encouragement with his tremendous presence. He is waiting for something, perhaps has unfinished business on this planet, and is, at the moment, set up in the cargo bay of the _Ensorceled_ with the cargo door open to catch the slight, warm breeze off the tarmac. His long cloak is laying off to the side, and his sleeves are rolled up, his hands occupied with repairs to the black speeder parked inside. It is a meditative exercise, as is everything he does, and his diffuse attention is thoughtful but focused. While Aurejin had been running around town on errands, he had left Mira to "guard the ship" for extended (and quite boring) periods of time. Though she had been allowed a brief outing to visit with her family, most of the last few days on Corellia had been spent on the Ensorceled, with the door closed, sitting on a crate. A crate that Aurejin wouldn't even let her open or look inside. He was a cruel master, and she was becoming a cranky appretrice. She hadn't even had time to return to the bluffs and retrieve the pile of cans she had left there. Aluminum gold! But with all this time spent guarding the ship, she had grown used to the patterns of life around the ship, of the comings and goings of citizens and patrol groups. Something had been amiss for the last hour. She wasn't able to put her finger on what exactly: too many patrols, not enough civilians, weird droids hanging around? "Aurejin?" she says from her spot atop the crate. "Something is not right." The Imperial Fleet, orbiting Corellia, had picked up the Ensorceled entering the system several days ago. Immediately ships had been sent to intercept - only to be distracted by the arrival of a rebel fighter. The Ensorceled managed to escape and land on the planet. After that Danik Kreldin sent search teams throughout the city to discover the location of the ship and arrest its occupants. However, the search did not go so good - that is, not until Ms. Starling stepped in personally and found it for them. It had embarrassed Danik slightly that she was successful where as he and Imperial Intelligence was not, even after so many days. Danik was now riding on the back of an Imperial ground craft, en route to the Ensorceled. Behind them were several other ground transports, occupied by the best of the stormtrooper legions. The transport column passed through the docking bay, past other ships and confused citizens who could only stand and watch as the Imperials drove through, obviously up to something. Up above the Ensorceled's location flew Imperial transports, circling around the Ensorceled. Spotlights shined on the area where the Ensorceled was docked, the weapons on the transports trained on the Lambda below. One more minute. The ground transports were just about there, and Danik could feel the tension in the transport. Danik most especially was stressed out; he knew who he was up against and it was enemy he would never underestimate again. His hand rested on his AA8 shotgun as the transports arrived on the area under the ships. The spaceport is bustling with activity, despite the Imperial presence the activities have not ceased. Governments come and go, but trade into and out of this place will most likely continue no matter what happens. A freighter lands, and soon after the technicians move in to refuel it and do whatever else they're supposed to do. There's another being, human most likely, arguing with a Dockmaster who sports a rather impressive look of indifference. A rather handsome couple is seated on one of the many benches in this area, they are absorbed in conversations, the woman giggling from time to time. Regardless of that joyful sight, there is a rather ominous atmosphere hanging around this spaceport, undoubtely because of the Transport landed here, and even the couple cast an anxious look at it. Moments later they get up, and slowly but surely walk over to the exit. It is at that precise moment that a young man clad in dark clothing wanders into the port, seemingly unaware of what is going on. He looks around for the first time, and after noticing the transport hovering above something, gulps inaudibly. Far, far away atop a building that overlooks the starport is a shadowy figure draped in black. The ledge she has chosen is two-thirds of the way up the length of the structure, leaving her sihlouette absorbed by the remaining tower by proxy of the distance between herself and the ground. Sinestra crouches, eyes faintly aglow. Her agents were well placed throughout the starport, in the most innocuous shells. Did the astromech that just passed the berth of the shuttle pause for a second too long while gazing within? Was that binary load lifter ferrying the same cargo back across the starport that it had just moved there an hour before? And what of that small security droid that lingers in the air some short distance away, monitoring things with a sharp lens and a small blue LED lit above its head? By Sinestra's calf, a small robot fawns for her attention. No more than six inches in height, the childlike droid reaches up to her, trying to climb up onto her knee so it can get at the ledge that's just a hair too far out of arm's length. "Patience, little one," she murmurs softly, reaching down to let the droid latch onto her fingers so it can be lifted into place. It tottles to the end of her knee and reaches forward to lean across the rounded top of the ledge, peering down below with eyes of blue. Just enough restraint is placed on the droid's small shoulder to pacify his curiosity without letting him lean too far. "Patience." Aurejin cocks his hand at a weird angle to reach all the way about the speeder to touch its throttle control and manipulate it. "Is that valve moving?" he asks, motioning with his chin to indicate it to Mira. He was not much of a mechanic, truthfully, but the speeder was not heavily damaged and just needed a good maintenance cleaning and tune up. Almost done. A few schematics have been laid out at his feet. "Not right?" he asks, glancing askance at the younger, quirkier Jedi. But in a half-second he sits up straighter, passing the hydrospanner to his other hand, dark eyes looking to the interior wall of the cargo bay, as if gazing through it. He stands, as if uncoiling from his spot beside the speeder. The Jedi Master sets the tool on the seat of the speeder, latching its engine case closed again and purses his lips. "It's quiet," he comments with a nod, walking warily out of the cargo bay, down the ramp, with his hands on his hips. The girl gives a distracted nod as Aurejin asks about the moving valve. In fact, it was not moving at all, but her gaze was too intently focused on the open ramp, and the starport outside, to be distracted by Aurejin's attempts to fix his woesome speeder. As Aurejin gets up from his work, Mira slides off the top of the crate and takes a few steps towards the open ramp, a worried expression on her brow. If Aurejin had brushed her off, she would have worried a little less. He was more in tune with things than she was, but his apparent concern has given her even more cause to fret. "See?" she asks, coming up a few steps behind him. "Not right." The spotlights coming from above attract her attention, and the girl steps out into the open to get a better view at the sky above. The circling transports cause her eyes to widen and her hand to drop to her hip.. "I think they found us." Danik had a bad feeling about this. The aging man had been through many battles before, but rarely did he feel nervous prior to a mission. Something was different about this, though. He learned his lessons well when fighting Ezkhil, and it left some rather bad memories. Gripping his AA8 tighter, Danik sighed, closed his eyes and put his head down. The five transports of seven stormtroopers each spread out and circled around the Lambda. Immediately the stormtroopers rushed out of their transports on both sides and went into position around the Lambda, focusing heavily near the ramp where one man was appearing walking down it. From the four transports in the air came another twenty stormtroopers; five of them landed atop the Lambda itself, securing themselves a position on top of the shuttle. They immediately set out to do their job: plant explosives on the hull in case the ship managed to take off. Taking the explosives, they set them down on the hull and began to prime them. The other fifteen joined their comrades around the shuttle; as Aurejin walked down the ramp, Danik Kreldin stepped forward, his shotgun readied. "Jedi Aurejin? You are under arrest. Surrender peacefully and we will avoid any conflict and unnecessary bloodshed. I don't believe either of us want that," Danik said, staring at the Jedi Master. The couple arrive at the exit just in time to see Aleh enterring, and the man notices him gulping, being the nice, law-abidding citizen he is, he walks towards Aleh forcibly dragging his fiance with him. He nods a greeting, after making sure that the much younger man's attention is on him, before actually talking. "Hello Sir, do not worry, they are most likely not out for you or else you'd be in shackles" It would seem that his fiance is not such a samaritan as she tries to pull away towards the exit, sniffing in disdain at the younger man's attire. Aleh arches a brow as he sees the couple approaching, unsure what they want with him. He deigns offering them a smile it's the least he can do, whispering "Thanks" before he waves and begins what might be a short trek towards the nearest wall, leaning against it as he watches the situation unfold. Droids, at least the ones acting peculiar, do not seem intent on getting underfoot as the Imperial troops rain down upon the _Ensorceled_. Whatever paths were being taken before gain a much wider distance from the center of activity, and in the case of at least one astromech droid with a fair view of the action, the journey ahead stops entirely. The optical sensor on the front of the astromech's dome shifts from crimson to cerulean as it whirrs a soft binary note to itself, observing that which now occurs before it. The security droid hovering through the air takes a much wider vector of travel around the area, darting around passersby in the starport proper as it snakes closer to a desired range of viewing. It skips so close to some that if they hesitated but a step in their gait they might have been party to a rather painful impact. Surely it could hover a few feet higher and be rid of all those hairy fleshy heads, necks and shoulders in its way, but it seems to prefer using the crowd for cover right now. It skirts right past Aleh and the couple in the process but doesn't stop to look at any of them more closely. Up on top of the building, the shadowy figure remains. Aurejin lifts his chin as the Empire descends on the _Ensorceled,_ leaning over to peer out from under the shadow of the lambda to find the source of the stomping feet overhead. Within seconds they are there, everywhere, and he gives Mira a staid look, waiting for Danik to approach. "Good day," he offers, with a stiff nod, reaching to a piece of cloth tucked in his belt. He wipes his hands carefully, glancing down, the action deliberate and slow. "Unnecessary bloodshed?" he asks, rubbing at a particularly stubborn spot of grease on the back of his hand. "You would be correct, on that point. You have come to a free planet and inflicted plenty of unnecessary bloodshed in the past few months, though, so, your credibility on the issue seems suspect." He folds the cloth and turns, tossing it back into the cargo bay. "So, I cannot surrender peacefully. I cannot surrender anything to your regime, my friend. Though I would extend to you the same offer. Turn back now, and you and your men can go home, alive." Aurejin flexes his fists and lets out a low sigh. He reaches for Mira through the Force. *We'll split up. Stay safe, get to your family. Hide. Get back to Coruscant when you can.* The bulk of the Imperials' attention seemed to be focused on Aurejin and the shuttle, and not on the little urchin who had stepped out of it moments before. Mira was not under arrest, just Mr. Aurejin. She attempts to saunter away and out of the circle of stormtroopers as if she were just a local merchant who had been trying to sell the occupants of this ship something. Tra la, nothing to see here in this brown-robed girl. She is very boring. A hand is lifted and waved enthusiastically in Aleh's direction and a smile spreads across her face, in mock recognition. "This is my planet. I was born and raised here. I wouldn't call it unnecessary at all. It is most unfortunate that you did not choose the easy path on this, Aurejin... Very well, so be it," Danik said, taking a few steps backwards as the stormtroopers inched closer. Danik was no professional ground troop, and wasn't about to get in the stormtrooper's way. Behind them was where he belonged, whether he liked it or not. The stormtroopers, their weapons still aimed on Aurejin.. that is until the young lady from the shuttle began to move through their ranks. The stormtroopers nearest to her seemed perplexed at first, but that was immediately washed away when they quickly reached out and grabbed the lady by the arms in an attempt to pull her back. "Where do you think you're going?" "Get him. We don't want him dead, remember," Danik said into his comlink, which was transmitted to the communicators within the helmets of each stormtrooper. Two of the stormtroopers, directly in front of the ramp, with their blasters already set to stun, aimed up at the Jedi on the ramp and opened fire. Atop the shuttle the team of five stormtroopers had finished setting and priming their explosives. They acknowledged Kreldin and reported their status, and then walked along the shuttle to the front, where the cockpit was. Aiming their blasters down at the cockpit window, they opened fire, continuously firing into the window. Once the window shattered the five stormtroopers quickly dropped themselves into the cockpit and set about securing the cockpit. As soon as the stormtroopers appear, the young couple quickly forgets whatever inkling of politeness they had, and quickly rush out the spaceport, disappearing from view later. This is a picture that is seen being repeated across the spaceport, the Freighter Captain yelling at the Dockmaster scurrying back to his vessel, quickly locking the doors behind him as soon as the ramp is pulled up, and the Dockmaster himself ordering his people to pull back before he moves to whatever hiding spot he can find. Quickly all but the most foolhardy staying, and speaking of foolhardy, Aleh is still around. He has been looking around the spaceport, although for the past few moments his gaze has been locked onto a binary load lifter, the one that just lifted the pile of stuff it just placed on the ground, and moved them back to wherever it picked them up from in the first place. The young man's head is tilted to the side, and his lips pursed, as blatant a signal of surprise and suspicion as he can make, but he looks away, still looking at the thing from the corner of his eye. And he catches the woman waving at him, as there are not many left and he looks at her, with a barely arched brow. Six days home and this was the first time Malign's 'protective detail' had let him anywhere near his ship, or for that matter the spaceport itself. Two Imperial Troopers walk with Arands, one to either side as the Tralusean makes his way towards the Tiamant, while two more follow a bit behind. These aren't the white armored Stormtroopers that fill the lower ranks, but Malign's elite troopers assigned to make sure the Arands couple didn't leave the planet. The trek isn't a long one, and in a few minutes, the group arrives at the YT-2400. Two of the guards take up position with their weapons held ready as the Tralusean reaches up to key in the access code to the ramp. His head turns to the side to take in the activity happening not too far away. "Uhhh, that doesn't look good." /Mira/. As the urchin begins her pleasant stroll away from the shuttle, Sinestra is tracking her like a bird of prey. Aurejin... Aurejin was a problem, one to be dealt with in due time. For the moment, he was Kreldin's problem- his, and his men's. This dirty woman was her primary concern. Much like a dirty bottle or can in the trash, discarded by most for its worthlessness and utter lack of value, this Mira was worth a shiny silver credit in information and Sinestra was not to be denied in redeeming it. She would know what this grungy creature knows, if it was the last thing she'd do. On the ground, the astromech droid's dome swivels slowly, panning to follow Mira's movements in particular. There is a tug at the back of Sinestra's clothing as she watches events unfold around the two Jedi, but she pays it no mind. No sentient life has joined her atop this building's ledge. Moments later two small robotic arms and a head emerge over the back of her shoulder, feet dangling back behind as it gazes down to see what the others are seeing. A metallic chuckle echoes out of it as the blue LEDs in its eyes light up and it is appraised of the situation. Meanwhile, the silver security droid finds a position it deems suitable and stops going forward, hovering in the crowd at head height (for most normal beings). Like a small Ithorian hummingbird, it zips laterally when necessary to procure a clean shot of the action in total, occasionally poking up just higher than the tallest thing to get an unobscured shot, then back down it goes. The Binary Load Lifter continues its trek, bringing back all it just shifted across the starport. Aurejin opens himself to the Force fully. The effect would be tangible to Mira, even to the far-off Sinestra, and self-evident to even the Imperials about the ship, by the look in the dark-haired man's eyes. His attention is not merely where his eyes are, but everywhere, on the ships, in the starport, on the Stormtroopers, their transports... even on the wedge-shaped ships far overhead in orbit. And on Danik, especially. The Jedi Aurejin flexes at the knees, his left hand shooting out with his fingers splayed. The Force pulls at Kreldin with all the intensity of a binary load lifter, attempting to yank the Imperial toward him. No, not toward him. Into the shuttle through the cargo bay, shotgun and all, head over heels. The first stun shot misses the already-moving Aurejin, his motion not so much fast as perfectly positioned. The second catches him on his side, where he winces and stumbles, but stays aright. The third, fourth... more, flash through the air, drawing concentric rings from the barrels of the weapons, seeming to tighten as they blink toward him. Aurejin's left hand is raised, arm extended and head lowered, as if a magnet for the stunning energy of the shots. He has not called on the Force, but rather it has called on him, its most favored servant, and the stun bolts spiral into the Master's palm, where he flexes his fingers and backpedals swiftly up the ramp. "EEEEEK DON'T TOUCH ME! BRUTALITY!" Mira screeches as the stormtroopers grab her. She seems to collect herself somewhat after this initial outburst. "TI'm sorry, I don't like to be touched. It's a problem." She squirms uncomfortably under the soldier's grasp. "Thank goodness you are here. I'm but a poor merchant, and this man has swindled me out of my goods. You will find my crate aboard his ship. I would very much like to have it back." But then the gunfire breaks out all around her. Confident that Aurejin has his situation well in hand, Mira worries about getting herself out of this sticky situation. "EEEEK" she screeches, attempting to curl up into a ball, despite still being held by the stormtroopers. "Help help! I do not want to die! I am but a poor merchant! My crate! Oh! Forget the crate! I do not want to get shot! Please let me go!" The final digit of the code entered, the Tiamant's ramp thumps before hissing slowly closed. All the while, Arands and one of the guards have been watching the event unfolding. The noise of the boarding ramp also drowns his single utterance as he sees the Force again. "Aurejin..." The Jedi were here on Corellia. "Krath!" This last comes out as the ramp hits the deck. And the crazy one. A small smile threatens his stoic composure. She had always amused him. So strong in the Force, and yet ... so incredibly odd. One of the troopers leads the way up the ramp. "Make it quick," comes the order to Arands, who simply nods in compliance. He starts up the ramp behind his 'protector', but casts a last look back out to the scene developing. "Axe," he calls up the ramp as he turns away from the battle. "Power up the lights." Time to get what he came for and to get back to the casino. Deiter comes in from Trader's way, a slight confused look upon his face. Having spent the last hour or so attempting to get his bearings, the tourist has found his way back to the starport for a steady frame of reference. He glances down at his datapad for a moment, and spends a few seconds determining north. Everything changes for a few brief moments. It almost feels like the air around him is sucked away, leaving him in a void. He cannot see anything in those few moments as the air is thrown back at him, and he finds himself within the Lambda itself. Rather than wonder what the heck happened to him, as he he already knew from past experience, Kreldin quickly grabs his comlink. "I want men in here now! Get me out of here!" he yells into it, forgetting that five of the stormtroopers were already on board. Rushing the ramp was risky; too risky for the troopers. It was narrow, and the Jedi would naturally be defending. And seeing as how he already made this far, the troopers were not about to charge the ramp and get slaughtered. The four transports, which were still circling about the area, were called instead; each one had a single E-web battery facing out the starboard hatch to provide air cover if the troopers needed it. The gunners weren't expecting to use it, but their time had come; one of the transports hovered close over the area, almost touching the helmets of the troopers below, as the E-web gunner trained his battery on the starboard hull of the Lambda. Almost immediately red lances of E-web fire poured out from the battery, slamming against the hull of the unshielded Lambda in several spots; finally, after enough force had been provided, the hull that had been taken the brunt of the E-web's fire began to melt away, revealing the inside of the Lambda. With two ways in now, the stormtroopers felt more confident, and thusly the assault began; several of them made their charge up the ramp while the rest made their way through the hole that had been provided by the E-web, ready to go face to face with the Jedi inside. The two troopers who had been dealing with Mira were silent for a few moments after she explained herself. "We're sorry we touched you. You are just a poor merchant and that man swindled you out of your goods. We will find your crate and bring it back. You can wait here, ma'am." The five stormtroopers who were in the cockpit of the Lambda heard the commotion outside; the sound of an E-web firing and hitting against the hull. Four of the stormtroopers filed into the cargo bay where Danik Kreldin and Aurejin were, while the other remained inside to try to sabotage the the controls of the Lambda, ready to destroy them if the situation called for it. A tangible effect indeed; that sense of Aurejin's connection to the force opening wide gives Sinestra a cold chill. In spite of the day's temperate weather and her fully concealing clothing, tiny bumps sprinkle up across the skin of her arms. The droids don't notice, or don't care. They watch down below... ...and those below watch what is before them. The astromech continues its steady feed of Mira's tantrum, talk of the crate tearing at Sinestra's attention while she attempts to monitor the actions of Aurejin through the Security bot's view. There is too much going on at once for her to fully appreciate. What finally wins out? Danik's abrupt entrance into the Lambda shuttle. The feed on Mira is all but ignored as he goes hurtling through the air and out of sight. A hand drops to her hip, extracting a comlink and holding it at her hip so she can hear the results. Lips are twisted in a smirk. The High Lord would no doubt be amused. Malign not so much, she was sure. Either way, it was an interesting turn of events. Too bad she doesn't have the faintest idea that the troopers may be letting Mira go. The dockmaster jumps behind a crate of an impressive size just before the firefight start, and so do a handful of his assistants, bunching over his inert, at least for now, figure. Seconds pass, and after making sure that the shots aren't directed at him, he gets to his knees, pushing aside the two men lying motionless atop of him. Needless to say he muttered a few choice words to them, which for the most part involved things that we will not say in order to keep some semblance of politically-correctness. As for the young man, he frowns after realizing that there is most definately something wrong with the binary lifter. His attention shifts back to the woman afterwards, and it is then that he makes a rather horrible realization, a droid seems to be following her, which by itself might not be so bad, but coupled with the lifter's strange action...Something is definately going on, but he does not know what, and he does not like that one bit. Finding that the troopers just agreed to whatever she said, that is something he did not expect, but he's seen stranger things. So he remains there, walking back into the wall, trying to use whatever shade it may provide to hide from view. His gaze for the moment focused on the merchant. Despite his size and height, Aurejin is lean, made up of all narrow, lithe muscle. He shifts his weight easily, as if moving without touching the ground, turning with a whirl to escape to inside the _Ensorceled,_ where, for a moment, he will have the advantage of closer quarters and familiar terrain. The cargo bay is not so large and has been converted to something like half-living space and half-storage area but it is clear that the Lambda has not made any real cargo runs in a long time. The Jedi darts inside, turning to gain the cover provided by one of the broad pneumatic pistons that support the cargo ramp. He slams a fist into a large red panel beside him, and immediately the _Ensorceled's_ weight seems to shift as the cargo bay ramp begins to retract. The Jedi's paired hands raise and shove the empty air the small tools and arranged spare parts around the base of the speeder seem to notice, each one of them becoming a projectile that is suddenly drawn to the front of the cargo bay as if magnetized to the Stormtrooper armor currently occupied by the boarding party of four. Meanwhile, a simple metal tube appears to tumble upwards from beside Aurejin as if of its own accord. Its length is straight, blue-tinted and unmarred by controls or knobs that characterize most of these rare items. Still untouched by the Jedi, it ignites itself, a blade of violet energy spouting forth, twisting and positioning itself for the swordsman's sudden grip... and Aurejin snatches it out of midair. He grits his teeth, and vaults toward Danik, past the closing cargo ramp even as Stormtroopers rush up it. From the outside of the swiftly disintegrating shuttle, the result of that encounter is swift, decisive, and gruesome: a jumble of disconnected white-armored parts are ejected from the mouth of the _Ensorceled_ a moment after the charge had begun. In another half-second, the Jedi Master is close enough to Danik for the Imperial to note his passive expression, deadly gaze, and the fact that he might be using him as cover. Aurejin's matchless lightsaber flashes between them. The escalation of the fight prompts the trooper inside to move Arands along. The guard takes a moment to search the shoulder bag and then thrusts it back into the noble's hands and pushing him down the ramp. "Move, west side. Stay along the wall." The orders are short and clipped. The two troopers that had been at the base of the ramp move off, leading Arands away as the third follows. For the slightest moment, the senior trooper pauses, experiencing a twinge of jealousy. He'd always looked down on Stormtroopers. They were little better than cannon fodder. But while he was on baby-sitting duty, the cannon fodder were engaging the Jedi. And he takes it out partially on his charge as he catches up and gives the Tralusean a shove from behind. "Move!" A small, satisfied, and tricky smile creeps onto Mira's face as the stormtroopers release her. "Thank you, kind sirs. Long live the Emperor," she gushes gratefully, letting the brave stormtroopers get on with the important work of retrieving her crate. She had a feeling that those poor stormtroopers would never emerge with her valuable cargo, if Aurejin's reputation with his lightsaber was any indication. Already she could sense the dismemberment of limbs going on inside the shuttle. The Tiamant, a familiar ship, was nearby, and as the troopers march Arands away from the open ramp, the girl takes advantage and climbs underneath it, taking cover from the firefight and quite out of sight. Now out of danger, she attempts to send Aurejin a message, "Let them take the crate." It felt like an instant; the stormtroopers that had been brave enough to charge the Lambda were all cut down into pieces, which now were outside for all the rest to see. This certainly wasn't a comforting sight for the stormtroopers who remained outside. But, these were stormtroopers, and they had a job to fulfill. With the ramp now closed, they only had one way in. They prepared for their second, and hopefully final charge into the Lambda, to capture Aurejin and rescue Kreldin. Inside the Lambda, however, Danik Kreldin was slowly regaining his posture, using the wall behind him to get himself up again. Scooping up his shotgun from the floor, he stared at the sight before him; the stormtroopers were being slaughtered one by one by the Jedi, and he was stuck here by himself with the madman. Gritting his teeth, Kreldin ran forward in a crazed effort to charge the Jedi as he was attacking the stormtroopers..only to trip over a certain crate on the floor. Dropping down to the floor, his shotgun once again sliding away from him, he banged his head onto the floor of the cargo bay. Wondering whether to feel embarrassed, stupid, or nervous, the commander was helped up by one of the stormtroopers who had appeared from the cockpit. Remaining quiet as the stormtroopers helped him up, Kreldin looked down at what he had tripped over: the crate. But before Kreldin could do anything anymore, Aurejin had appeared, his lightsaber in hand. The four stormtroopers behind him had their blasters readied, and not set to stun; they never had a chance to change their settings, and Kreldin had forgot to collect his shotgun as he stood up. His only defenses were his various vibro-blades, but neither were a match against the Jedi. The two stormtroopers who had been with Mira were now making their way to the Lambda, on orders from Mira. Pushing their way past the other stormtroopers and walking over the bodies of their dead comrades, they jumped into the Lambda through the hole and began searching for the crate, ignoring Aurejin and the others. Malign was right in his issued warning. The one they called Aurejin was not to be trifled with on a whim. Sinestra comes to this conclusion without even seeing some of the more impressive feats hidden by the shuttle or the troops attempting to take it. She had made the correct choice in watching from her perch today instead of flinging herself recklessly into battle. All of her pieces would no doubt remain firmly attached to her person as a result of that decision. Sinestra was also gathering valueable intelligence about just what this Jedi was capable of, insofar as she and her electronic minions can see. Right now that isn't much, due to most of the action occuring out of sight, so the time comes to return that attention to Mira... And where is Mira? Alarm surges adrenaline through Sinestra's veins as she realizes the obnoxious, grungy girl has vanished. The droid that was set to monitor her has lost her in the shuffle around the Tiamant, as he doesn't move quite as fast as she does and has all the cross-traffic of people fleeing (or gawking at) the firefight to contend with. This was no good at all. "Where did that little rat _go_," she mutters under her breath, eyes flashing a brilliant blue beneath her tinted glasses of the same shade. Several droids in the starport suddenly stop whatever it was they were doing and start to look around. The Security Droid is exempt from this phenomenon, snaking in dangerously close to the _Ensorceled_, trying to get a better look at what's going on within it. As for Aleh, he is still where he was left alone, against the wall, for the most part hidden by its shade. He shifts his gaze over to the lambda in question, watching the actions around it, and he catches the first sight of the Jedi once he comes out of the shuttle, comitting as much of the man's figure to memory. And it is then that he catches sight of the man that just tripped, a familiar one, vaguely so but still...The young man shifts his gaze to the strange woman, who he now finds hiding under a vessel's ram. His brow furrow as he realizes that she most likely isn't look at him, and he concentrates on finding a way to let her know that she's being tailed, might as well do something while he's at it. There would be time to feel regret later. Each of these men, these Stormtroopers, were living things, and the Jedi has not grown so calloused as to have a complete disregard even for their small, wretched existences. But they know the risks as well as he, know that doing their duty could mean that they could meet their destiny on any given day and to hesitate means a quick death. Aurejin's lightsaber is unforgiving, surgically precise, and has the advantage aboard the for-the-moment enclosed spaces of the _Ensorceled._ There is no time to consider it, but the irony is that this exact spot is Aurejin's small, mobile training place, where he practices daily, his serious meditation with the sword a way of exploring his connection with the Force. Here, on the thin mats every morning he battles a squad of spinning remotes, specially constructed for him by his technically adept wife, their occasional tricks and changing tactics a mere morning stretch for his muscles in that private ritual. Now that same lightsaber flows faster than the eye can follow, battering away a trio of perfectly aimed blaster bolts, speeding as if a ribbon of light, through the fingers of one armored hand clenching a gun, into the heart of another Stormtrooper, and, with a lunge of its wielder's hand, straight and true down the barrel of an E-11 carbine, igniting its powerpack and filling the cargo bay to the cockpit with a shimmering explosion of blistering flame that sends a vortex of superheated air blasting out of the rear and newly opened side of the Lambda. Danik and the final Stormtrooper are concealed by the blaze. This, Aurejin has the presence of mind to think, was going poorly. But in another few moments, against all odds, the _Ensorceled's_ twin engines flare bright blue, the lean, charred form of the Jedi visible in the cockpit of the once fine vessel. He drags the limp form of the last of the boarding party off the console and spins up the engines. They wouldn't survive this, the last journey of the _Ensorceled,_ so there is no need to take care with the cold engines. He guns it, diverting all the power from its meager weapons, shield generators, everything into getting this thing off the ground. It lurches ahead, still oddly graceful, its top riddled with explosive charges, holes blown in its side, its cockpit transparisteel shattered. Hovering at a severe sideways angle, the Lambda gouges a deep groove in the duracrete tarmac with one of its clawed landing feet before it gets enough altitude to straighten. The engines suddenly come fully online and, Aurejin having maxed out the controls, the ship takes off at a powerful angle, up, sideways, tri-foil wings folded, just barely above the Tiamant, and toward the building where Sinestra has crouched. Thrown against the floor of the Lambda and away from the console by the jolt of takeoff, a grim Aurejin groans. No time to count his wounds, but yeah. Going poorly, indeed. Mira continues to cower underneath the ramp of the Tiamant, pleasantly unaware of the valiant search being conducted by the droids in the spaceport. She peeks out from one side of it, long enough to see her pair of trusty stormtroopers troop into the Ensorceled. Moments later, flames come exploding out the very hole that they had just entered. Leave it to Aurejin to not listen to her. He never listened to her! The stormtroopers were surely dead. Muttering to herself, Mira watches the shuttle glide (or lurch) away, towards the hills. She shrinks back somewhat, waiting for the commotion in the spaceport to settle down, and hopefully for some of the guards to disperse somewhat, before ocming out. Danik watched as the stormtroopers around him were cut down as he leaned against the swoop bike. His breathing had picked up in pace as he watched the Jedi cut down his comrades. This was it..the end of Danik Kreldin. He could almost swear his life flashed before his eyes with each swing of the lightsaber, as he stared at the Jedi. Finally, he was brought back into reality with the explosion of the E-11's power back. Covering his head, Kreldin made a few grumbles - this had all gone awfully wrong, and he was going to take the blame for it. What was he thinking? He was going to die! But all that was put to rest when the Jedi ignored him and passed into the cockpit. Picking up his shotgun from the floor, he wondered what to do...stay and fight to the last man, or flee? Looking down at the dead bodies, Kreldin quickly made up his mind. He had to get out of here, fast, his mind flashing to the explosive charges set on top of the Lambda. And then, to make matters worse, the ship had taken off and was making its escape. The ramp was closed, and the explosion had done its damage; as far as he knew, he was only one left aliev. Kreldin slung his shotgun over his shoulder and sat on the swoop. Through Kreldin's lifetime, he had become a famous swoop racer in the G4 division, almost surpassing Arands or Pallando, but he gave up the sport several years ago and he hadn't driven one since. Looking over the controls he quickly turned the swoop on and prepped the engines. But the Lambda was already high in the skies, and it wouldn't be long before the explosives went off. Scooping up the crate Sinestra had ordered him to take, Kreldin placed it in his lap and prepared to exit. "Sir, we need that crate. A young female merchant requires it," said the stormtrooper sergeant, looking at Danik. "Please hand it over..." Before Danik stood one last stormtrooper, his armor scorched and blackened, and he was wobbly as he stod. Danik merely looked at the stormtrooper, absoloutely perplexed by what he was saying, and amazed at how he was alive. The stormtrooper was serious, too. He was making a lunge for it... but time was out. The swoop accelerated forward slowly, made a turn to the face to the starboard hull, and then it went forward at full-speed, out the hole in the hull and into the sky of Corellia. The stormtrooper jumped out after the crate, falling into the sky after the swoop. The fall was exhilarating, similiar to drops on certain swoop tracks. Recalling his years on the swoop, Kreldin quickly leveled himself out...only to swirve out of control as the stormtrooper slammed into him. As the stormtrooper went further down, so did the crate, slipping out of Kreldin's lap as a result of the collision and down to the surface below... These two Jedi, split apart and each going their separate ways, was frustrating Sinestra beyond all reason. Keeping track of them both at once was proving impossible. Just as the droids begin to spread out in search of Mira, coming dangerously close to her location without realizing it, Aurejin manages to get the Lambda's engines online and the craft starts heading towards her position. Immediate threats must be dealt with first, especially when they are made to her person. Leave it to Mira to come out of hiding only once the droids have been released to their on cognisance. Only the security droid is left to notice the strange crate coming out of the shuttle and the girl's break for it, but by now Sinestra is no longer actively listening to his reports. She instead collects the two small droids and retreats back further into the building's shadow, using part of it as protective cover as a dark swirl of the Force churns around her in an aura imperceivable but to those connected to it. Then, with a sudden burst, a dark figure comes sprinting out of the shadows along the building's ledge. A daunting feat at such a height, on such a precarious surface, but sprint she does all the way to the end with no sign of slowing down. A glint of silver is clutched in one hand as the woman leaps across the expanse with a fair trajectory, heading to dive in through the hole busted in the cockpit as whatever's in her hand is swung forward at the pilot. Something through the Force may not seem a hundred percent correct about all that, but then again, some crazy lady just ran across a tall building and leapt through the air at the dilapidated remains of a fleeing terrorist shuttle rigged to explode. Trying to attach a level of rightness to that situation is somewhat absurd in and of itself. The dockmaster finally makes an appearance, raising his balding head (and not the good kind of balding-the ugly combover kind ming you) from the large crate that has until now served as an excellent cover from any shots, whether they be on purpose or stray shots. He's not exactly sure, but since the Empire came things have gotten plenty interesting around here, and not often in a particularly good way. His two assistants also raise their heads, peering at the spaceport for the first time since their first dive into this hiding place. The dockmaster barely stifles a flood of curses as he notices the state his spaceport is in, but he has said enough to turn a few of the surroundings heads of the people foolish. Aleh on his side is still leaning against the wall, trying to merge into it would seem, he does not want to be around when the troopers make their sweeps of the civilians. His gaze remains on the merchant woman for a few seconds before he looks around, trying to commit the scene that just occured and everything else for that matter to memory. Might be useful, who knows. Just as Mira is about to sit down in the dirt in the shade of the ramp to wait out the chaos, something tweaks at her senses. Something was coming out of the shuttle! Jumping up, she again peeks around the edge of the ramp in time to see Danik springing from the side, followed by her valiant stormtrooper, trying to get at the crate. Down, down, the crate falls to the ground, where it crashes. Mira leaps to action. "My crate, my precious crate! The Imperials are heroes! The theif is getting away!" she exclaims, exploding from her hiding spot and running to where the crate has fallen. She quickly checks it over for damage before pointing up at the escaping shuttle. "Take that, theif!" she yells. As she looks up to the sky, she can barely make out a figure leaping onto the shuttle. Then she begins to gather up the crate. Just moments after Mira begins to check on her crate, the valiant stormtrooper slams into the ground just next to it, extinguishing that trooper's life immediately, his mission complete. Danik, meanwhile, has just only regain control of his swoop. Angling it downward towards the surface, Kreldin accelerated to full speed, angling the nose of the swoop upward as he came to the end of his journey. As the swoop approached the ground, it evened out and circled around the area in which his objective crashed. Adrenaline coursed through Kreldin's blood as the thrill of the ride set in, but Kreldin regained his senses shortly and brought his swoop to a halt, his eyes setting on the crate and the young Mira. He recognized her immediately from the database he was searching through the other day, on Sinestra's behalf. And he knew he had to get that crate. Clicking his comlink, he spoke to his troops. "This is Kreldin. Detonate the explosives, and send a squad to my position just north of your current one. I have a prisoner here," he said, stepping towards the female as he brought his shotgun to bear once again. "Mira Isaria... that crate belongs to the Empire." Since this no longer concerns him anymore, and the merchant is in fact not a merchant, this much he's sure of now, Aleh slips out of whatever shade the walls granted him, quickly heading to the nearest exit. What he learned has to be worth something to someone, and he intends to find out what that price is. Of course right now, he is more concerned about getting out of here, and the young man slips into the trickle of civilians making their way into other parts of the city, disappearing from view moments later. The _Ensorceled_ screams toward a sudden dead-end, partially unmanned, angled toward a rather solid-looking building where Sinestra has decided to set up camp. Aurejin stuggles up to his feet, half-stunned and badly burned, digging his fingers into the back of the headrest of the co-pilot's seat. And even his awesome composure is rattled by the sight of the looming building -- he yanks the steering controls hard, turning the _Ensorceled's_ nose toward daylight. If he knew who was lurking on and in the building he would have probably gunned the engines and headed straight for her. But he turns, instead, with everything he's got. Which turns out to be slightly less than what's required. The bent but sturdy landing strut on that side of the Lambda slams into the side of the building, pulling the _Ensorceled_ about, and spraying molded duracrete bricks into the starport. There is a terrific wrenching sound and a spray of sparks and the landing gear of the ship /snaps/ off with ballistic force, a whirling landing claw of certain death for anyone in its path, randomly bouncing back toward the starport and into a wall, where Aleh was standing only a moment before. The _Ensorceled,_ meanwhile, does somewhat better, again turned at an awkward angle by the collision with the building. Now trailing even more smoke, Aurejin stubbornly takes the ship up, headed south above the city, the starship limping sideways and leaking some sort of flourescent green fluid from the wound in its side. It gains speed and altitude both, Coronet City beginning to race past beneath its damaged underside. And what? Sinestra! Here, in his ship, stuck to the nose of the Lambda with a determined glare. She gave off a weird vibe the first time they met, to be sure, though she is positively /wrong/ now. Aurejin suddenly glances up, can sense the murderous intention in the ship with him, the minds of the demolitions experts back at the starport, and feels the danger building within the ship. Aurejin had not been so optimistic as to think that the ship would be spaceworthy -- particularly without a functional cockpit window -- but he had hoped that it would get him far enough away from the Empire to set out on his own again and disappear into the city to regroup. The _Ensorceled_ suddenly disappears from the Corellian sky, nestled at the heart of a tremendous green and gold fireball, as if a new sun is created just over the center of the city. The shockwave blows out windows, bursts eardrums, and in a few seconds, will spread pieces of the _Ensorceled_ over a rather impressive geographic area. By the time the fireball dissipates, the charred hulk of the vessel is visible, in mid-air, engines a scant blue glow behind a thick veil of smoke. The Lambda is not flying under its own power now, will no longer be capable of flight, and instead careens toward the Corona House, Corellia's government seat and home of the Imperial Military camp. It disappears behind a row of buildings and everything is silent for a moment, then a second fireball rolls up into the sky. To a very careful eye, a dark shape can be seen in the distant sky, fluttering down from the explosion as if some random debris, trailing smoke. It's the tiny figure of Aurejin, astride Sinestra, but free-falling, his hand wrapped around her throat, and her hand slashing at his forearm with a knife, the pair of them determined to end one another, up until the very end. Mira jumps slightly as the stormtrooper crashes to the ground beside her. "Oops!" she exclaims as she gathers up the crate and stands up. Just then, Danik lands his speeder in front of her and disembarks, making his demands. "Haven't you lost enough troops today already?" Mira asks ,the crate she carries serving as a makeshift shield between her and Danik's shotgun. She is unable to reach her lightsaber while carrying the crate, but is unwilling to give him an easy win either. Desperate to get away before the reinforcements arrive, Mira grapples for an out. There was the giant pile of cargo that the binary load lifter had been loading and unloading repeatedly nearby. So naturally, Mira throws the crate as hard as she can in that direction, where it crashes into many many similar crates before making a break for it. Danik would have to decide which he wanted to focus on: Mira or the crate. "They all died fulfilling their purpose. Now, surrender and hand over the..." before he could finish his sentence, however, the crate was thrown into a pile of cargo to the side as Mira made a run for it. Kreldin's natural reaction was to start off after Mira immediately, but he abruptly stopped, watching as she made off. Sinestra had told him to get the crate, not Mira. Besides, she couldn't get far for long. As the remaining stormtroopers approached the area, Kreldin heard the explosion of the ship, signifying the success of his mission. "Commander, one of the targets made off in that direction," he said, pointing to where Mira had run off. "Hunt her down. She was the one on the Lambda earlier. Give me two of your men, and get moving!" he said, motioning for two of the stormtroopers to come forward. The remaining stormtroopers started after Mira, though they had a great head start. The search was more than likely futile, but they had to try. Kreldin, meanwhile, took his two troopers and began to comb through the pile of cargo for that one crate. It was dented, from the drop, and Kreldin had a good enough look at it recognize its unique features. It was only a matter time.. Mira manages to get out of the spaceport and duck down a side alley. Corellia was her home, and from years of hiding from flocks of birds, Mira knew all the best hiding places; from those both on the ground and in the air. Those dastardly birds would search the city high and low for her, but in the sewers they never ventured! It is into the sewers that Mira disappears as soon as she is out of sight of those in persuit of her. She tromps cheerfully through her old stomping grounds, following Aurejin's instructions to go home. The binary load lifter beeps unhappily as the crate comes flying, disrupting its neat pile of boxes. Determined to continue along its programmed path, it goes about collecting the scattered boxes, piling them neatly upon each other. It beeps again unhappily as the Imperials come and disrupt its work, moving its boxes around into other, unorganized piles. It works diligintly to put the displaced boxes back where they had been. What a good worker droid! As Danik and the two stormtroopers begin their search, the binary load lifter begins to distrupt his search - moving the crates around, and further damaging his efforts. "Damn it, shut this damn thing off!" he shouted, and the two stormtroopers exchanged glances and shrugged. Neither of them had experience with such droids, and so they took the quick and easy path and fired several shots into the droid from their E-11. Danik, still fuming that his search was made this much harder by a mere droid, got on his comlink and called in reinforcements from the nearby military base to help in his search. "Find the dock master and shut down all the binary load lifters. Seal off the docking bay and prevent any further intrusions. Tear this place apart until you find that crate," Danik said to the two troopers present, one of whom immediately set out after the dock master while the other continued the search along with Kreldin. The troopers who were sent after Mira, however, had even less luck; unfamiliar with the city, and certainly not the sewers, they could not find a single trace of the lady, and none of the locals were willing to help, either. However, they could not return empty handed so soon. They continted to search the nearby area, however futile they realized it was at this point. She had escaped, that was that.============================= IGNews =============================
Message: 10/22 Posted Author Shuttle Crashes into the Corona Ho Tue May 03 Danik The IGN logo spins across the screen, which soon fades to the newsroom and anchorman Roy Anderson. An insert to the top left of the screen shows fires coming from the Corona House on Corellia, with firefighting units on the scene putting out the blaze. "Early today a Lambda-class shuttle, which was seen leaving a docking bay on Corellia in distress, exploded in mid-flight and crashed into the Corona House. The fire spread to the nearby Imperial camp set up. Firefighting units were quickly dispatched to the Corona House to put out the blaze, but a significant portion of the Corona House is in ruins and the fire destroyed a portion of the Imperial camp. Reports from Corellia have confirmed that several Imperial military transports, carrying stormtroopers, were seen entering the docking bay which the shuttle took off from a good ten to fifteen minutes prior to the crash. So far Imperial and Corellian officials have declined to comment." ============================================================================== Later... Survivors of the Imperial task force, and newly arrived reinforcements, led by Danik Kreldin, were now securing the starport, gathering the dead and tending to the wounded. It was a few minutes following Mira's escape from their clutches, the return of the squad he sent to hunt Mira down, and the discovery of the crate that Danik Kreldin had been desperately searching for. The crate, messed up from the large fall it took, was easy to open with help from a few stormtroopers, and the contents of the crate were laid out before Kreldin. Books, papers, and documents that made little or no sense to Kreldin. In Danik's fifty-four years of life, he had experienced the Jedi, and their eradication from the universe, but despite this, his knowledge of their religion was unknown to the Imperial. But he knew Starling could made use of this. He was now certain of what she was, his mind flashing back to Trandosha. He now had to deliver the crate to her. Picking up the comlink Sinestra handed to him, Kreldin contacted her and announced the success of his mission. The security droid that had stayed behind at the starport was frantically sweeping the area around Danik, keeping careful watch over all that he was doing with the crate and its contents. It had the nagging presence of an overbearing mother or guardian but was smart enough to keep from getting in the way, lest someone order it be shot down. For the moment it was alone, and did not have the protection of its master. That soon changes. From out of the shadows of the buildings surrounding the tarmac, Sinestra emerges. Her hair is loose, and some of the locks that frame her face are curling slightly in the humidity, as if they have recently been damp and then dried in the open air. She herself looks tired, her eyes slightly sunken beneath those blue-lensed glasses she wears, her gait lacking the raw energy she was brimming with on her initial visit to the base camp outside Corona House. It is not a minute after acknowledging Danik's communication to her, and it comes from the general direction of the large building now scarred by the Lambda's passing, but several city blocks closer to the tarmac. When Sinestra appears, the droid excites and skirts in much closer to the Imperial than it had been brave enough to attempt before, waiting there cheerfully for its master. "You have something for me," the woman states in greeting as she comes to a stop nearby. The team of Imperials had not bothered with the droid that had been watching over them in the near distance, as their attention had been mostly fixed on the crate and the all too soon arrival of Sinestra. The several stormtroopers around Danik stepped away as the lady arrived, leaving Kreldin to deal with her. Folding his hands behind his back, Kreldin looked into Sinestra's blue-lenses glasses and stood in a military manner, despite Sinestra had no apparent military ranking. Danik did it merely out of respect...and a certain level of fear. "Yes, Ms. Starling..the crate, as you told me. I don't fully understand its contents, but it is definitely related to the Jedi. As for the Jedi themselves, Aurejin attempted to escape but his ship was wired and exploded as he done so. We've sent a team to the crash site now, and we doubt he made it out alive. As for the female, she well..escaped," he said, moving a bit as he announced that most unfortunate news. Mira was the one Sinestra wanted badly. The respect... as well as the fear that came with it... was appreciated. Enough so that Sinestra seems willing to forgive the fact that the crate has been opened, its contents pulled out and put on display. It helps that having them out and visible makes it easier for her to see just what she's gotten from this little adventure. Perhaps her trip to Corellia was not a loss after all. "Have it repacked," she tells him cooly, eyes still on the prize spread out before them, "Carefully." If any of the crate's contents were to get damaged, she would surely have someone's head over it, but things like that need not be said aloud. One word wrapped carefully in a certain tone can convey the same with much more of a subtle edge. "I will ensure it gets safely to my ship." Talk of Aurejin brings her gaze back up to Kreldin. "The Jedi was not with the ship when it hit the ground," she informs him. "But let us just say... his fall was not a pleasant one." Nothing is said of the landing. "You should spread your search to the area directly beneath the ship when the explosives were detonated, but take caution- animals are at their most dangerous while wounded." And Mira. Sinestra wanted possession of the little rat so badly she could taste the blood and bile in the back of her throat. That she managed to escape is not something that pleases her. Not at all. However her anger will not be taken out on Kreldin tonight. He had gotten her the crate. Aurejin had been dealt with to the best of her ability. There would be time for the others later. "She may seek out the fallen Master. Have your patrols watch for her in those areas they search." Danik nodded at the lady, then turned to two of the stormtroopers who were standing to the side, doing their best to inconspicuous. "Pack up the documents in the crate. Carefully." The stormtroopers went to work immediately, placing the books and documents back into the crate, slowly and carefully, then closed the crate and handed it off to Kreldin. "Here it is, Ms. Starling. One of my men will escort you back to your ship," he said, presenting the crate towards Sinestra." "That is..most unfortunate he survived. Thank you for informing me.. very well, we'll intesify our patrols and search radius. The Jedi won't escape us. If Mira is as bound to her Master as you say, he'll provide good bait for us. You need not worry, those Jedi won't escape us." Sinestra and her security droid alike watch as the Stormtroopers pack the crate back up again. The droid is more obvious about the whole process, nosing in quite close and hovering about to make sure these men do not forget their orders. Once it's handed to Kreldin, the droid merely hovers at the level of his shoulder, then once Sinestra takes possession of it the droid circles her a single time before fanning out into the starport. The path to the ship must be scouted out for her, escort or not. "They are potentially more dangerous together than they are apart. Finding her enroute would be most advisable," she suggests, as truly, she did not want to see more of Kreldin's men die today. At least not without having the girl. "His present condition leaves much to be desired, but do not let your troops underestimate his ability, or you will have far fewer of them in the end." For now, Sinestra will claim what little victory she can. The crate was hers, and she had put a severe hurt on the one it belonged to. If his body survived the last half hour, perhaps this would leave a wound on his psyche less easily forgotten. So childlike to have pride over taking away another's precious things for no reason other than spite, but satisfying. Very satisfying. "I will leave you to your work, Kreldin. Good job." Words of praise do not come from her lips often, and they do not continue beyond the two spoken. With them, she turns as if prepared to leave, not bothering to check if her escort is ready or able to keep up. "Contact me if the Master's death is confirmed, or if the girl is found."
- Coronet. Mired in the dregs of the Empire, neck-deep in Imperial army and Imperial bureaucrats, encased in their glossy black armor and well-pressed uniforms. But the spirit of this most traditional, stubborn and perhaps rebellious planet is strong and cannot be broken, even by this firm and unyielding occupation. And so Aurejin has been here, on the planet, even after the Empire and its agents have identified his marked ship. He has a long history on this planet and has relied on it these past few days, moving furtively but confidently in the city, checking on old friends, collecting information, and providing encouragement with his tremendous presence. He is waiting for something, perhaps has unfinished business on this planet, and is, at the moment, set up in the cargo bay of the _Ensorceled_ with the cargo door open to catch the slight, warm breeze off the tarmac. His long cloak is laying off to the side, and his sleeves are rolled up, his hands occupied with repairs to the black speeder parked inside. It is a meditative exercise, as is everything he does, and his diffuse attention is thoughtful but focused. While Aurejin had been running around town on errands, he had left Mira to "guard the ship" for extended (and quite boring) periods of time. Though she had been allowed a brief outing to visit with her family, most of the last few days on Corellia had been spent on the Ensorceled, with the door closed, sitting on a crate. A crate that Aurejin wouldn't even let her open or look inside. He was a cruel master, and she was becoming a cranky appretrice. She hadn't even had time to return to the bluffs and retrieve the pile of cans she had left there. Aluminum gold! But with all this time spent guarding the ship, she had grown used to the patterns of life around the ship, of the comings and goings of citizens and patrol groups. Something had been amiss for the last hour. She wasn't able to put her finger on what exactly: too many patrols, not enough civilians, weird droids hanging around? "Aurejin?" she says from her spot atop the crate. "Something is not right." The Imperial Fleet, orbiting Corellia, had picked up the Ensorceled entering the system several days ago. Immediately ships had been sent to intercept - only to be distracted by the arrival of a rebel fighter. The Ensorceled managed to escape and land on the planet. After that Danik Kreldin sent search teams throughout the city to discover the location of the ship and arrest its occupants. However, the search did not go so good - that is, not until Ms. Starling stepped in personally and found it for them. It had embarrassed Danik slightly that she was successful where as he and Imperial Intelligence was not, even after so many days. Danik was now riding on the back of an Imperial ground craft, en route to the Ensorceled. Behind them were several other ground transports, occupied by the best of the stormtrooper legions. The transport column passed through the docking bay, past other ships and confused citizens who could only stand and watch as the Imperials drove through, obviously up to something. Up above the Ensorceled's location flew Imperial transports, circling around the Ensorceled. Spotlights shined on the area where the Ensorceled was docked, the weapons on the transports trained on the Lambda below. One more minute. The ground transports were just about there, and Danik could feel the tension in the transport. Danik most especially was stressed out; he knew who he was up against and it was enemy he would never underestimate again. His hand rested on his AA8 shotgun as the transports arrived on the area under the ships. The spaceport is bustling with activity, despite the Imperial presence the activities have not ceased. Governments come and go, but trade into and out of this place will most likely continue no matter what happens. A freighter lands, and soon after the technicians move in to refuel it and do whatever else they're supposed to do. There's another being, human most likely, arguing with a Dockmaster who sports a rather impressive look of indifference. A rather handsome couple is seated on one of the many benches in this area, they are absorbed in conversations, the woman giggling from time to time. Regardless of that joyful sight, there is a rather ominous atmosphere hanging around this spaceport, undoubtely because of the Transport landed here, and even the couple cast an anxious look at it. Moments later they get up, and slowly but surely walk over to the exit. It is at that precise moment that a young man clad in dark clothing wanders into the port, seemingly unaware of what is going on. He looks around for the first time, and after noticing the transport hovering above something, gulps inaudibly. Far, far away atop a building that overlooks the starport is a shadowy figure draped in black. The ledge she has chosen is two-thirds of the way up the length of the structure, leaving her sihlouette absorbed by the remaining tower by proxy of the distance between herself and the ground. Sinestra crouches, eyes faintly aglow. Her agents were well placed throughout the starport, in the most innocuous shells. Did the astromech that just passed the berth of the shuttle pause for a second too long while gazing within? Was that binary load lifter ferrying the same cargo back across the starport that it had just moved there an hour before? And what of that small security droid that lingers in the air some short distance away, monitoring things with a sharp lens and a small blue LED lit above its head? By Sinestra's calf, a small robot fawns for her attention. No more than six inches in height, the childlike droid reaches up to her, trying to climb up onto her knee so it can get at the ledge that's just a hair too far out of arm's length. "Patience, little one," she murmurs softly, reaching down to let the droid latch onto her fingers so it can be lifted into place. It tottles to the end of her knee and reaches forward to lean across the rounded top of the ledge, peering down below with eyes of blue. Just enough restraint is placed on the droid's small shoulder to pacify his curiosity without letting him lean too far. "Patience." Aurejin cocks his hand at a weird angle to reach all the way about the speeder to touch its throttle control and manipulate it. "Is that valve moving?" he asks, motioning with his chin to indicate it to Mira. He was not much of a mechanic, truthfully, but the speeder was not heavily damaged and just needed a good maintenance cleaning and tune up. Almost done. A few schematics have been laid out at his feet. "Not right?" he asks, glancing askance at the younger, quirkier Jedi. But in a half-second he sits up straighter, passing the hydrospanner to his other hand, dark eyes looking to the interior wall of the cargo bay, as if gazing through it. He stands, as if uncoiling from his spot beside the speeder. The Jedi Master sets the tool on the seat of the speeder, latching its engine case closed again and purses his lips. "It's quiet," he comments with a nod, walking warily out of the cargo bay, down the ramp, with his hands on his hips. The girl gives a distracted nod as Aurejin asks about the moving valve. In fact, it was not moving at all, but her gaze was too intently focused on the open ramp, and the starport outside, to be distracted by Aurejin's attempts to fix his woesome speeder. As Aurejin gets up from his work, Mira slides off the top of the crate and takes a few steps towards the open ramp, a worried expression on her brow. If Aurejin had brushed her off, she would have worried a little less. He was more in tune with things than she was, but his apparent concern has given her even more cause to fret. "See?" she asks, coming up a few steps behind him. "Not right." The spotlights coming from above attract her attention, and the girl steps out into the open to get a better view at the sky above. The circling transports cause her eyes to widen and her hand to drop to her hip.. "I think they found us." Danik had a bad feeling about this. The aging man had been through many battles before, but rarely did he feel nervous prior to a mission. Something was different about this, though. He learned his lessons well when fighting Ezkhil, and it left some rather bad memories. Gripping his AA8 tighter, Danik sighed, closed his eyes and put his head down. The five transports of seven stormtroopers each spread out and circled around the Lambda. Immediately the stormtroopers rushed out of their transports on both sides and went into position around the Lambda, focusing heavily near the ramp where one man was appearing walking down it. From the four transports in the air came another twenty stormtroopers; five of them landed atop the Lambda itself, securing themselves a position on top of the shuttle. They immediately set out to do their job: plant explosives on the hull in case the ship managed to take off. Taking the explosives, they set them down on the hull and began to prime them. The other fifteen joined their comrades around the shuttle; as Aurejin walked down the ramp, Danik Kreldin stepped forward, his shotgun readied. "Jedi Aurejin? You are under arrest. Surrender peacefully and we will avoid any conflict and unnecessary bloodshed. I don't believe either of us want that," Danik said, staring at the Jedi Master. The couple arrive at the exit just in time to see Aleh enterring, and the man notices him gulping, being the nice, law-abidding citizen he is, he walks towards Aleh forcibly dragging his fiance with him. He nods a greeting, after making sure that the much younger man's attention is on him, before actually talking. "Hello Sir, do not worry, they are most likely not out for you or else you'd be in shackles" It would seem that his fiance is not such a samaritan as she tries to pull away towards the exit, sniffing in disdain at the younger man's attire. Aleh arches a brow as he sees the couple approaching, unsure what they want with him. He deigns offering them a smile it's the least he can do, whispering "Thanks" before he waves and begins what might be a short trek towards the nearest wall, leaning against it as he watches the situation unfold. Droids, at least the ones acting peculiar, do not seem intent on getting underfoot as the Imperial troops rain down upon the _Ensorceled_. Whatever paths were being taken before gain a much wider distance from the center of activity, and in the case of at least one astromech droid with a fair view of the action, the journey ahead stops entirely. The optical sensor on the front of the astromech's dome shifts from crimson to cerulean as it whirrs a soft binary note to itself, observing that which now occurs before it. The security droid hovering through the air takes a much wider vector of travel around the area, darting around passersby in the starport proper as it snakes closer to a desired range of viewing. It skips so close to some that if they hesitated but a step in their gait they might have been party to a rather painful impact. Surely it could hover a few feet higher and be rid of all those hairy fleshy heads, necks and shoulders in its way, but it seems to prefer using the crowd for cover right now. It skirts right past Aleh and the couple in the process but doesn't stop to look at any of them more closely. Up on top of the building, the shadowy figure remains. Aurejin lifts his chin as the Empire descends on the _Ensorceled,_ leaning over to peer out from under the shadow of the lambda to find the source of the stomping feet overhead. Within seconds they are there, everywhere, and he gives Mira a staid look, waiting for Danik to approach. "Good day," he offers, with a stiff nod, reaching to a piece of cloth tucked in his belt. He wipes his hands carefully, glancing down, the action deliberate and slow. "Unnecessary bloodshed?" he asks, rubbing at a particularly stubborn spot of grease on the back of his hand. "You would be correct, on that point. You have come to a free planet and inflicted plenty of unnecessary bloodshed in the past few months, though, so, your credibility on the issue seems suspect." He folds the cloth and turns, tossing it back into the cargo bay. "So, I cannot surrender peacefully. I cannot surrender anything to your regime, my friend. Though I would extend to you the same offer. Turn back now, and you and your men can go home, alive." Aurejin flexes his fists and lets out a low sigh. He reaches for Mira through the Force. *We'll split up. Stay safe, get to your family. Hide. Get back to Coruscant when you can.* The bulk of the Imperials' attention seemed to be focused on Aurejin and the shuttle, and not on the little urchin who had stepped out of it moments before. Mira was not under arrest, just Mr. Aurejin. She attempts to saunter away and out of the circle of stormtroopers as if she were just a local merchant who had been trying to sell the occupants of this ship something. Tra la, nothing to see here in this brown-robed girl. She is very boring. A hand is lifted and waved enthusiastically in Aleh's direction and a smile spreads across her face, in mock recognition. "This is my planet. I was born and raised here. I wouldn't call it unnecessary at all. It is most unfortunate that you did not choose the easy path on this, Aurejin... Very well, so be it," Danik said, taking a few steps backwards as the stormtroopers inched closer. Danik was no professional ground troop, and wasn't about to get in the stormtrooper's way. Behind them was where he belonged, whether he liked it or not. The stormtroopers, their weapons still aimed on Aurejin.. that is until the young lady from the shuttle began to move through their ranks. The stormtroopers nearest to her seemed perplexed at first, but that was immediately washed away when they quickly reached out and grabbed the lady by the arms in an attempt to pull her back. "Where do you think you're going?" "Get him. We don't want him dead, remember," Danik said into his comlink, which was transmitted to the communicators within the helmets of each stormtrooper. Two of the stormtroopers, directly in front of the ramp, with their blasters already set to stun, aimed up at the Jedi on the ramp and opened fire. Atop the shuttle the team of five stormtroopers had finished setting and priming their explosives. They acknowledged Kreldin and reported their status, and then walked along the shuttle to the front, where the cockpit was. Aiming their blasters down at the cockpit window, they opened fire, continuously firing into the window. Once the window shattered the five stormtroopers quickly dropped themselves into the cockpit and set about securing the cockpit. As soon as the stormtroopers appear, the young couple quickly forgets whatever inkling of politeness they had, and quickly rush out the spaceport, disappearing from view later. This is a picture that is seen being repeated across the spaceport, the Freighter Captain yelling at the Dockmaster scurrying back to his vessel, quickly locking the doors behind him as soon as the ramp is pulled up, and the Dockmaster himself ordering his people to pull back before he moves to whatever hiding spot he can find. Quickly all but the most foolhardy staying, and speaking of foolhardy, Aleh is still around. He has been looking around the spaceport, although for the past few moments his gaze has been locked onto a binary load lifter, the one that just lifted the pile of stuff it just placed on the ground, and moved them back to wherever it picked them up from in the first place. The young man's head is tilted to the side, and his lips pursed, as blatant a signal of surprise and suspicion as he can make, but he looks away, still looking at the thing from the corner of his eye. And he catches the woman waving at him, as there are not many left and he looks at her, with a barely arched brow. Six days home and this was the first time Malign's 'protective detail' had let him anywhere near his ship, or for that matter the spaceport itself. Two Imperial Troopers walk with Arands, one to either side as the Tralusean makes his way towards the Tiamant, while two more follow a bit behind. These aren't the white armored Stormtroopers that fill the lower ranks, but Malign's elite troopers assigned to make sure the Arands couple didn't leave the planet. The trek isn't a long one, and in a few minutes, the group arrives at the YT-2400. Two of the guards take up position with their weapons held ready as the Tralusean reaches up to key in the access code to the ramp. His head turns to the side to take in the activity happening not too far away. "Uhhh, that doesn't look good." /Mira/. As the urchin begins her pleasant stroll away from the shuttle, Sinestra is tracking her like a bird of prey. Aurejin... Aurejin was a problem, one to be dealt with in due time. For the moment, he was Kreldin's problem- his, and his men's. This dirty woman was her primary concern. Much like a dirty bottle or can in the trash, discarded by most for its worthlessness and utter lack of value, this Mira was worth a shiny silver credit in information and Sinestra was not to be denied in redeeming it. She would know what this grungy creature knows, if it was the last thing she'd do. On the ground, the astromech droid's dome swivels slowly, panning to follow Mira's movements in particular. There is a tug at the back of Sinestra's clothing as she watches events unfold around the two Jedi, but she pays it no mind. No sentient life has joined her atop this building's ledge. Moments later two small robotic arms and a head emerge over the back of her shoulder, feet dangling back behind as it gazes down to see what the others are seeing. A metallic chuckle echoes out of it as the blue LEDs in its eyes light up and it is appraised of the situation. Meanwhile, the silver security droid finds a position it deems suitable and stops going forward, hovering in the crowd at head height (for most normal beings). Like a small Ithorian hummingbird, it zips laterally when necessary to procure a clean shot of the action in total, occasionally poking up just higher than the tallest thing to get an unobscured shot, then back down it goes. The Binary Load Lifter continues its trek, bringing back all it just shifted across the starport. Aurejin opens himself to the Force fully. The effect would be tangible to Mira, even to the far-off Sinestra, and self-evident to even the Imperials about the ship, by the look in the dark-haired man's eyes. His attention is not merely where his eyes are, but everywhere, on the ships, in the starport, on the Stormtroopers, their transports... even on the wedge-shaped ships far overhead in orbit. And on Danik, especially. The Jedi Aurejin flexes at the knees, his left hand shooting out with his fingers splayed. The Force pulls at Kreldin with all the intensity of a binary load lifter, attempting to yank the Imperial toward him. No, not toward him. Into the shuttle through the cargo bay, shotgun and all, head over heels. The first stun shot misses the already-moving Aurejin, his motion not so much fast as perfectly positioned. The second catches him on his side, where he winces and stumbles, but stays aright. The third, fourth... more, flash through the air, drawing concentric rings from the barrels of the weapons, seeming to tighten as they blink toward him. Aurejin's left hand is raised, arm extended and head lowered, as if a magnet for the stunning energy of the shots. He has not called on the Force, but rather it has called on him, its most favored servant, and the stun bolts spiral into the Master's palm, where he flexes his fingers and backpedals swiftly up the ramp. "EEEEEK DON'T TOUCH ME! BRUTALITY!" Mira screeches as the stormtroopers grab her. She seems to collect herself somewhat after this initial outburst. "TI'm sorry, I don't like to be touched. It's a problem." She squirms uncomfortably under the soldier's grasp. "Thank goodness you are here. I'm but a poor merchant, and this man has swindled me out of my goods. You will find my crate aboard his ship. I would very much like to have it back." But then the gunfire breaks out all around her. Confident that Aurejin has his situation well in hand, Mira worries about getting herself out of this sticky situation. "EEEEK" she screeches, attempting to curl up into a ball, despite still being held by the stormtroopers. "Help help! I do not want to die! I am but a poor merchant! My crate! Oh! Forget the crate! I do not want to get shot! Please let me go!" The final digit of the code entered, the Tiamant's ramp thumps before hissing slowly closed. All the while, Arands and one of the guards have been watching the event unfolding. The noise of the boarding ramp also drowns his single utterance as he sees the Force again. "Aurejin..." The Jedi were here on Corellia. "Krath!" This last comes out as the ramp hits the deck. And the crazy one. A small smile threatens his stoic composure. She had always amused him. So strong in the Force, and yet ... so incredibly odd. One of the troopers leads the way up the ramp. "Make it quick," comes the order to Arands, who simply nods in compliance. He starts up the ramp behind his 'protector', but casts a last look back out to the scene developing. "Axe," he calls up the ramp as he turns away from the battle. "Power up the lights." Time to get what he came for and to get back to the casino. Deiter comes in from Trader's way, a slight confused look upon his face. Having spent the last hour or so attempting to get his bearings, the tourist has found his way back to the starport for a steady frame of reference. He glances down at his datapad for a moment, and spends a few seconds determining north. Everything changes for a few brief moments. It almost feels like the air around him is sucked away, leaving him in a void. He cannot see anything in those few moments as the air is thrown back at him, and he finds himself within the Lambda itself. Rather than wonder what the heck happened to him, as he he already knew from past experience, Kreldin quickly grabs his comlink. "I want men in here now! Get me out of here!" he yells into it, forgetting that five of the stormtroopers were already on board. Rushing the ramp was risky; too risky for the troopers. It was narrow, and the Jedi would naturally be defending. And seeing as how he already made this far, the troopers were not about to charge the ramp and get slaughtered. The four transports, which were still circling about the area, were called instead; each one had a single E-web battery facing out the starboard hatch to provide air cover if the troopers needed it. The gunners weren't expecting to use it, but their time had come; one of the transports hovered close over the area, almost touching the helmets of the troopers below, as the E-web gunner trained his battery on the starboard hull of the Lambda. Almost immediately red lances of E-web fire poured out from the battery, slamming against the hull of the unshielded Lambda in several spots; finally, after enough force had been provided, the hull that had been taken the brunt of the E-web's fire began to melt away, revealing the inside of the Lambda. With two ways in now, the stormtroopers felt more confident, and thusly the assault began; several of them made their charge up the ramp while the rest made their way through the hole that had been provided by the E-web, ready to go face to face with the Jedi inside. The two troopers who had been dealing with Mira were silent for a few moments after she explained herself. "We're sorry we touched you. You are just a poor merchant and that man swindled you out of your goods. We will find your crate and bring it back. You can wait here, ma'am." The five stormtroopers who were in the cockpit of the Lambda heard the commotion outside; the sound of an E-web firing and hitting against the hull. Four of the stormtroopers filed into the cargo bay where Danik Kreldin and Aurejin were, while the other remained inside to try to sabotage the the controls of the Lambda, ready to destroy them if the situation called for it. A tangible effect indeed; that sense of Aurejin's connection to the force opening wide gives Sinestra a cold chill. In spite of the day's temperate weather and her fully concealing clothing, tiny bumps sprinkle up across the skin of her arms. The droids don't notice, or don't care. They watch down below... ...and those below watch what is before them. The astromech continues its steady feed of Mira's tantrum, talk of the crate tearing at Sinestra's attention while she attempts to monitor the actions of Aurejin through the Security bot's view. There is too much going on at once for her to fully appreciate. What finally wins out? Danik's abrupt entrance into the Lambda shuttle. The feed on Mira is all but ignored as he goes hurtling through the air and out of sight. A hand drops to her hip, extracting a comlink and holding it at her hip so she can hear the results. Lips are twisted in a smirk. The High Lord would no doubt be amused. Malign not so much, she was sure. Either way, it was an interesting turn of events. Too bad she doesn't have the faintest idea that the troopers may be letting Mira go. The dockmaster jumps behind a crate of an impressive size just before the firefight start, and so do a handful of his assistants, bunching over his inert, at least for now, figure. Seconds pass, and after making sure that the shots aren't directed at him, he gets to his knees, pushing aside the two men lying motionless atop of him. Needless to say he muttered a few choice words to them, which for the most part involved things that we will not say in order to keep some semblance of politically-correctness. As for the young man, he frowns after realizing that there is most definately something wrong with the binary lifter. His attention shifts back to the woman afterwards, and it is then that he makes a rather horrible realization, a droid seems to be following her, which by itself might not be so bad, but coupled with the lifter's strange action...Something is definately going on, but he does not know what, and he does not like that one bit. Finding that the troopers just agreed to whatever she said, that is something he did not expect, but he's seen stranger things. So he remains there, walking back into the wall, trying to use whatever shade it may provide to hide from view. His gaze for the moment focused on the merchant. Despite his size and height, Aurejin is lean, made up of all narrow, lithe muscle. He shifts his weight easily, as if moving without touching the ground, turning with a whirl to escape to inside the _Ensorceled,_ where, for a moment, he will have the advantage of closer quarters and familiar terrain. The cargo bay is not so large and has been converted to something like half-living space and half-storage area but it is clear that the Lambda has not made any real cargo runs in a long time. The Jedi darts inside, turning to gain the cover provided by one of the broad pneumatic pistons that support the cargo ramp. He slams a fist into a large red panel beside him, and immediately the _Ensorceled's_ weight seems to shift as the cargo bay ramp begins to retract. The Jedi's paired hands raise and shove the empty air the small tools and arranged spare parts around the base of the speeder seem to notice, each one of them becoming a projectile that is suddenly drawn to the front of the cargo bay as if magnetized to the Stormtrooper armor currently occupied by the boarding party of four. Meanwhile, a simple metal tube appears to tumble upwards from beside Aurejin as if of its own accord. Its length is straight, blue-tinted and unmarred by controls or knobs that characterize most of these rare items. Still untouched by the Jedi, it ignites itself, a blade of violet energy spouting forth, twisting and positioning itself for the swordsman's sudden grip... and Aurejin snatches it out of midair. He grits his teeth, and vaults toward Danik, past the closing cargo ramp even as Stormtroopers rush up it. From the outside of the swiftly disintegrating shuttle, the result of that encounter is swift, decisive, and gruesome: a jumble of disconnected white-armored parts are ejected from the mouth of the _Ensorceled_ a moment after the charge had begun. In another half-second, the Jedi Master is close enough to Danik for the Imperial to note his passive expression, deadly gaze, and the fact that he might be using him as cover. Aurejin's matchless lightsaber flashes between them. The escalation of the fight prompts the trooper inside to move Arands along. The guard takes a moment to search the shoulder bag and then thrusts it back into the noble's hands and pushing him down the ramp. "Move, west side. Stay along the wall." The orders are short and clipped. The two troopers that had been at the base of the ramp move off, leading Arands away as the third follows. For the slightest moment, the senior trooper pauses, experiencing a twinge of jealousy. He'd always looked down on Stormtroopers. They were little better than cannon fodder. But while he was on baby-sitting duty, the cannon fodder were engaging the Jedi. And he takes it out partially on his charge as he catches up and gives the Tralusean a shove from behind. "Move!" A small, satisfied, and tricky smile creeps onto Mira's face as the stormtroopers release her. "Thank you, kind sirs. Long live the Emperor," she gushes gratefully, letting the brave stormtroopers get on with the important work of retrieving her crate. She had a feeling that those poor stormtroopers would never emerge with her valuable cargo, if Aurejin's reputation with his lightsaber was any indication. Already she could sense the dismemberment of limbs going on inside the shuttle. The Tiamant, a familiar ship, was nearby, and as the troopers march Arands away from the open ramp, the girl takes advantage and climbs underneath it, taking cover from the firefight and quite out of sight. Now out of danger, she attempts to send Aurejin a message, "Let them take the crate." It felt like an instant; the stormtroopers that had been brave enough to charge the Lambda were all cut down into pieces, which now were outside for all the rest to see. This certainly wasn't a comforting sight for the stormtroopers who remained outside. But, these were stormtroopers, and they had a job to fulfill. With the ramp now closed, they only had one way in. They prepared for their second, and hopefully final charge into the Lambda, to capture Aurejin and rescue Kreldin. Inside the Lambda, however, Danik Kreldin was slowly regaining his posture, using the wall behind him to get himself up again. Scooping up his shotgun from the floor, he stared at the sight before him; the stormtroopers were being slaughtered one by one by the Jedi, and he was stuck here by himself with the madman. Gritting his teeth, Kreldin ran forward in a crazed effort to charge the Jedi as he was attacking the stormtroopers..only to trip over a certain crate on the floor. Dropping down to the floor, his shotgun once again sliding away from him, he banged his head onto the floor of the cargo bay. Wondering whether to feel embarrassed, stupid, or nervous, the commander was helped up by one of the stormtroopers who had appeared from the cockpit. Remaining quiet as the stormtroopers helped him up, Kreldin looked down at what he had tripped over: the crate. But before Kreldin could do anything anymore, Aurejin had appeared, his lightsaber in hand. The four stormtroopers behind him had their blasters readied, and not set to stun; they never had a chance to change their settings, and Kreldin had forgot to collect his shotgun as he stood up. His only defenses were his various vibro-blades, but neither were a match against the Jedi. The two stormtroopers who had been with Mira were now making their way to the Lambda, on orders from Mira. Pushing their way past the other stormtroopers and walking over the bodies of their dead comrades, they jumped into the Lambda through the hole and began searching for the crate, ignoring Aurejin and the others. Malign was right in his issued warning. The one they called Aurejin was not to be trifled with on a whim. Sinestra comes to this conclusion without even seeing some of the more impressive feats hidden by the shuttle or the troops attempting to take it. She had made the correct choice in watching from her perch today instead of flinging herself recklessly into battle. All of her pieces would no doubt remain firmly attached to her person as a result of that decision. Sinestra was also gathering valueable intelligence about just what this Jedi was capable of, insofar as she and her electronic minions can see. Right now that isn't much, due to most of the action occuring out of sight, so the time comes to return that attention to Mira... And where is Mira? Alarm surges adrenaline through Sinestra's veins as she realizes the obnoxious, grungy girl has vanished. The droid that was set to monitor her has lost her in the shuffle around the Tiamant, as he doesn't move quite as fast as she does and has all the cross-traffic of people fleeing (or gawking at) the firefight to contend with. This was no good at all. "Where did that little rat _go_," she mutters under her breath, eyes flashing a brilliant blue beneath her tinted glasses of the same shade. Several droids in the starport suddenly stop whatever it was they were doing and start to look around. The Security Droid is exempt from this phenomenon, snaking in dangerously close to the _Ensorceled_, trying to get a better look at what's going on within it. As for Aleh, he is still where he was left alone, against the wall, for the most part hidden by its shade. He shifts his gaze over to the lambda in question, watching the actions around it, and he catches the first sight of the Jedi once he comes out of the shuttle, comitting as much of the man's figure to memory. And it is then that he catches sight of the man that just tripped, a familiar one, vaguely so but still...The young man shifts his gaze to the strange woman, who he now finds hiding under a vessel's ram. His brow furrow as he realizes that she most likely isn't look at him, and he concentrates on finding a way to let her know that she's being tailed, might as well do something while he's at it. There would be time to feel regret later. Each of these men, these Stormtroopers, were living things, and the Jedi has not grown so calloused as to have a complete disregard even for their small, wretched existences. But they know the risks as well as he, know that doing their duty could mean that they could meet their destiny on any given day and to hesitate means a quick death. Aurejin's lightsaber is unforgiving, surgically precise, and has the advantage aboard the for-the-moment enclosed spaces of the _Ensorceled._ There is no time to consider it, but the irony is that this exact spot is Aurejin's small, mobile training place, where he practices daily, his serious meditation with the sword a way of exploring his connection with the Force. Here, on the thin mats every morning he battles a squad of spinning remotes, specially constructed for him by his technically adept wife, their occasional tricks and changing tactics a mere morning stretch for his muscles in that private ritual. Now that same lightsaber flows faster than the eye can follow, battering away a trio of perfectly aimed blaster bolts, speeding as if a ribbon of light, through the fingers of one armored hand clenching a gun, into the heart of another Stormtrooper, and, with a lunge of its wielder's hand, straight and true down the barrel of an E-11 carbine, igniting its powerpack and filling the cargo bay to the cockpit with a shimmering explosion of blistering flame that sends a vortex of superheated air blasting out of the rear and newly opened side of the Lambda. Danik and the final Stormtrooper are concealed by the blaze. This, Aurejin has the presence of mind to think, was going poorly. But in another few moments, against all odds, the _Ensorceled's_ twin engines flare bright blue, the lean, charred form of the Jedi visible in the cockpit of the once fine vessel. He drags the limp form of the last of the boarding party off the console and spins up the engines. They wouldn't survive this, the last journey of the _Ensorceled,_ so there is no need to take care with the cold engines. He guns it, diverting all the power from its meager weapons, shield generators, everything into getting this thing off the ground. It lurches ahead, still oddly graceful, its top riddled with explosive charges, holes blown in its side, its cockpit transparisteel shattered. Hovering at a severe sideways angle, the Lambda gouges a deep groove in the duracrete tarmac with one of its clawed landing feet before it gets enough altitude to straighten. The engines suddenly come fully online and, Aurejin having maxed out the controls, the ship takes off at a powerful angle, up, sideways, tri-foil wings folded, just barely above the Tiamant, and toward the building where Sinestra has crouched. Thrown against the floor of the Lambda and away from the console by the jolt of takeoff, a grim Aurejin groans. No time to count his wounds, but yeah. Going poorly, indeed. Mira continues to cower underneath the ramp of the Tiamant, pleasantly unaware of the valiant search being conducted by the droids in the spaceport. She peeks out from one side of it, long enough to see her pair of trusty stormtroopers troop into the Ensorceled. Moments later, flames come exploding out the very hole that they had just entered. Leave it to Aurejin to not listen to her. He never listened to her! The stormtroopers were surely dead. Muttering to herself, Mira watches the shuttle glide (or lurch) away, towards the hills. She shrinks back somewhat, waiting for the commotion in the spaceport to settle down, and hopefully for some of the guards to disperse somewhat, before ocming out. Danik watched as the stormtroopers around him were cut down as he leaned against the swoop bike. His breathing had picked up in pace as he watched the Jedi cut down his comrades. This was it..the end of Danik Kreldin. He could almost swear his life flashed before his eyes with each swing of the lightsaber, as he stared at the Jedi. Finally, he was brought back into reality with the explosion of the E-11's power back. Covering his head, Kreldin made a few grumbles - this had all gone awfully wrong, and he was going to take the blame for it. What was he thinking? He was going to die! But all that was put to rest when the Jedi ignored him and passed into the cockpit. Picking up his shotgun from the floor, he wondered what to do...stay and fight to the last man, or flee? Looking down at the dead bodies, Kreldin quickly made up his mind. He had to get out of here, fast, his mind flashing to the explosive charges set on top of the Lambda. And then, to make matters worse, the ship had taken off and was making its escape. The ramp was closed, and the explosion had done its damage; as far as he knew, he was only one left aliev. Kreldin slung his shotgun over his shoulder and sat on the swoop. Through Kreldin's lifetime, he had become a famous swoop racer in the G4 division, almost surpassing Arands or Pallando, but he gave up the sport several years ago and he hadn't driven one since. Looking over the controls he quickly turned the swoop on and prepped the engines. But the Lambda was already high in the skies, and it wouldn't be long before the explosives went off. Scooping up the crate Sinestra had ordered him to take, Kreldin placed it in his lap and prepared to exit. "Sir, we need that crate. A young female merchant requires it," said the stormtrooper sergeant, looking at Danik. "Please hand it over..." Before Danik stood one last stormtrooper, his armor scorched and blackened, and he was wobbly as he stod. Danik merely looked at the stormtrooper, absoloutely perplexed by what he was saying, and amazed at how he was alive. The stormtrooper was serious, too. He was making a lunge for it... but time was out. The swoop accelerated forward slowly, made a turn to the face to the starboard hull, and then it went forward at full-speed, out the hole in the hull and into the sky of Corellia. The stormtrooper jumped out after the crate, falling into the sky after the swoop. The fall was exhilarating, similiar to drops on certain swoop tracks. Recalling his years on the swoop, Kreldin quickly leveled himself out...only to swirve out of control as the stormtrooper slammed into him. As the stormtrooper went further down, so did the crate, slipping out of Kreldin's lap as a result of the collision and down to the surface below... These two Jedi, split apart and each going their separate ways, was frustrating Sinestra beyond all reason. Keeping track of them both at once was proving impossible. Just as the droids begin to spread out in search of Mira, coming dangerously close to her location without realizing it, Aurejin manages to get the Lambda's engines online and the craft starts heading towards her position. Immediate threats must be dealt with first, especially when they are made to her person. Leave it to Mira to come out of hiding only once the droids have been released to their on cognisance. Only the security droid is left to notice the strange crate coming out of the shuttle and the girl's break for it, but by now Sinestra is no longer actively listening to his reports. She instead collects the two small droids and retreats back further into the building's shadow, using part of it as protective cover as a dark swirl of the Force churns around her in an aura imperceivable but to those connected to it. Then, with a sudden burst, a dark figure comes sprinting out of the shadows along the building's ledge. A daunting feat at such a height, on such a precarious surface, but sprint she does all the way to the end with no sign of slowing down. A glint of silver is clutched in one hand as the woman leaps across the expanse with a fair trajectory, heading to dive in through the hole busted in the cockpit as whatever's in her hand is swung forward at the pilot. Something through the Force may not seem a hundred percent correct about all that, but then again, some crazy lady just ran across a tall building and leapt through the air at the dilapidated remains of a fleeing terrorist shuttle rigged to explode. Trying to attach a level of rightness to that situation is somewhat absurd in and of itself. The dockmaster finally makes an appearance, raising his balding head (and not the good kind of balding-the ugly combover kind ming you) from the large crate that has until now served as an excellent cover from any shots, whether they be on purpose or stray shots. He's not exactly sure, but since the Empire came things have gotten plenty interesting around here, and not often in a particularly good way. His two assistants also raise their heads, peering at the spaceport for the first time since their first dive into this hiding place. The dockmaster barely stifles a flood of curses as he notices the state his spaceport is in, but he has said enough to turn a few of the surroundings heads of the people foolish. Aleh on his side is still leaning against the wall, trying to merge into it would seem, he does not want to be around when the troopers make their sweeps of the civilians. His gaze remains on the merchant woman for a few seconds before he looks around, trying to commit the scene that just occured and everything else for that matter to memory. Might be useful, who knows. Just as Mira is about to sit down in the dirt in the shade of the ramp to wait out the chaos, something tweaks at her senses. Something was coming out of the shuttle! Jumping up, she again peeks around the edge of the ramp in time to see Danik springing from the side, followed by her valiant stormtrooper, trying to get at the crate. Down, down, the crate falls to the ground, where it crashes. Mira leaps to action. "My crate, my precious crate! The Imperials are heroes! The theif is getting away!" she exclaims, exploding from her hiding spot and running to where the crate has fallen. She quickly checks it over for damage before pointing up at the escaping shuttle. "Take that, theif!" she yells. As she looks up to the sky, she can barely make out a figure leaping onto the shuttle. Then she begins to gather up the crate. Just moments after Mira begins to check on her crate, the valiant stormtrooper slams into the ground just next to it, extinguishing that trooper's life immediately, his mission complete. Danik, meanwhile, has just only regain control of his swoop. Angling it downward towards the surface, Kreldin accelerated to full speed, angling the nose of the swoop upward as he came to the end of his journey. As the swoop approached the ground, it evened out and circled around the area in which his objective crashed. Adrenaline coursed through Kreldin's blood as the thrill of the ride set in, but Kreldin regained his senses shortly and brought his swoop to a halt, his eyes setting on the crate and the young Mira. He recognized her immediately from the database he was searching through the other day, on Sinestra's behalf. And he knew he had to get that crate. Clicking his comlink, he spoke to his troops. "This is Kreldin. Detonate the explosives, and send a squad to my position just north of your current one. I have a prisoner here," he said, stepping towards the female as he brought his shotgun to bear once again. "Mira Isaria... that crate belongs to the Empire." Since this no longer concerns him anymore, and the merchant is in fact not a merchant, this much he's sure of now, Aleh slips out of whatever shade the walls granted him, quickly heading to the nearest exit. What he learned has to be worth something to someone, and he intends to find out what that price is. Of course right now, he is more concerned about getting out of here, and the young man slips into the trickle of civilians making their way into other parts of the city, disappearing from view moments later. The _Ensorceled_ screams toward a sudden dead-end, partially unmanned, angled toward a rather solid-looking building where Sinestra has decided to set up camp. Aurejin stuggles up to his feet, half-stunned and badly burned, digging his fingers into the back of the headrest of the co-pilot's seat. And even his awesome composure is rattled by the sight of the looming building -- he yanks the steering controls hard, turning the _Ensorceled's_ nose toward daylight. If he knew who was lurking on and in the building he would have probably gunned the engines and headed straight for her. But he turns, instead, with everything he's got. Which turns out to be slightly less than what's required. The bent but sturdy landing strut on that side of the Lambda slams into the side of the building, pulling the _Ensorceled_ about, and spraying molded duracrete bricks into the starport. There is a terrific wrenching sound and a spray of sparks and the landing gear of the ship /snaps/ off with ballistic force, a whirling landing claw of certain death for anyone in its path, randomly bouncing back toward the starport and into a wall, where Aleh was standing only a moment before. The _Ensorceled,_ meanwhile, does somewhat better, again turned at an awkward angle by the collision with the building. Now trailing even more smoke, Aurejin stubbornly takes the ship up, headed south above the city, the starship limping sideways and leaking some sort of flourescent green fluid from the wound in its side. It gains speed and altitude both, Coronet City beginning to race past beneath its damaged underside. And what? Sinestra! Here, in his ship, stuck to the nose of the Lambda with a determined glare. She gave off a weird vibe the first time they met, to be sure, though she is positively /wrong/ now. Aurejin suddenly glances up, can sense the murderous intention in the ship with him, the minds of the demolitions experts back at the starport, and feels the danger building within the ship. Aurejin had not been so optimistic as to think that the ship would be spaceworthy -- particularly without a functional cockpit window -- but he had hoped that it would get him far enough away from the Empire to set out on his own again and disappear into the city to regroup. The _Ensorceled_ suddenly disappears from the Corellian sky, nestled at the heart of a tremendous green and gold fireball, as if a new sun is created just over the center of the city. The shockwave blows out windows, bursts eardrums, and in a few seconds, will spread pieces of the _Ensorceled_ over a rather impressive geographic area. By the time the fireball dissipates, the charred hulk of the vessel is visible, in mid-air, engines a scant blue glow behind a thick veil of smoke. The Lambda is not flying under its own power now, will no longer be capable of flight, and instead careens toward the Corona House, Corellia's government seat and home of the Imperial Military camp. It disappears behind a row of buildings and everything is silent for a moment, then a second fireball rolls up into the sky. To a very careful eye, a dark shape can be seen in the distant sky, fluttering down from the explosion as if some random debris, trailing smoke. It's the tiny figure of Aurejin, astride Sinestra, but free-falling, his hand wrapped around her throat, and her hand slashing at his forearm with a knife, the pair of them determined to end one another, up until the very end. Mira jumps slightly as the stormtrooper crashes to the ground beside her. "Oops!" she exclaims as she gathers up the crate and stands up. Just then, Danik lands his speeder in front of her and disembarks, making his demands. "Haven't you lost enough troops today already?" Mira asks ,the crate she carries serving as a makeshift shield between her and Danik's shotgun. She is unable to reach her lightsaber while carrying the crate, but is unwilling to give him an easy win either. Desperate to get away before the reinforcements arrive, Mira grapples for an out. There was the giant pile of cargo that the binary load lifter had been loading and unloading repeatedly nearby. So naturally, Mira throws the crate as hard as she can in that direction, where it crashes into many many similar crates before making a break for it. Danik would have to decide which he wanted to focus on: Mira or the crate. "They all died fulfilling their purpose. Now, surrender and hand over the..." before he could finish his sentence, however, the crate was thrown into a pile of cargo to the side as Mira made a run for it. Kreldin's natural reaction was to start off after Mira immediately, but he abruptly stopped, watching as she made off. Sinestra had told him to get the crate, not Mira. Besides, she couldn't get far for long. As the remaining stormtroopers approached the area, Kreldin heard the explosion of the ship, signifying the success of his mission. "Commander, one of the targets made off in that direction," he said, pointing to where Mira had run off. "Hunt her down. She was the one on the Lambda earlier. Give me two of your men, and get moving!" he said, motioning for two of the stormtroopers to come forward. The remaining stormtroopers started after Mira, though they had a great head start. The search was more than likely futile, but they had to try. Kreldin, meanwhile, took his two troopers and began to comb through the pile of cargo for that one crate. It was dented, from the drop, and Kreldin had a good enough look at it recognize its unique features. It was only a matter time.. Mira manages to get out of the spaceport and duck down a side alley. Corellia was her home, and from years of hiding from flocks of birds, Mira knew all the best hiding places; from those both on the ground and in the air. Those dastardly birds would search the city high and low for her, but in the sewers they never ventured! It is into the sewers that Mira disappears as soon as she is out of sight of those in persuit of her. She tromps cheerfully through her old stomping grounds, following Aurejin's instructions to go home. The binary load lifter beeps unhappily as the crate comes flying, disrupting its neat pile of boxes. Determined to continue along its programmed path, it goes about collecting the scattered boxes, piling them neatly upon each other. It beeps again unhappily as the Imperials come and disrupt its work, moving its boxes around into other, unorganized piles. It works diligintly to put the displaced boxes back where they had been. What a good worker droid! As Danik and the two stormtroopers begin their search, the binary load lifter begins to distrupt his search - moving the crates around, and further damaging his efforts. "Damn it, shut this damn thing off!" he shouted, and the two stormtroopers exchanged glances and shrugged. Neither of them had experience with such droids, and so they took the quick and easy path and fired several shots into the droid from their E-11. Danik, still fuming that his search was made this much harder by a mere droid, got on his comlink and called in reinforcements from the nearby military base to help in his search. "Find the dock master and shut down all the binary load lifters. Seal off the docking bay and prevent any further intrusions. Tear this place apart until you find that crate," Danik said to the two troopers present, one of whom immediately set out after the dock master while the other continued the search along with Kreldin. The troopers who were sent after Mira, however, had even less luck; unfamiliar with the city, and certainly not the sewers, they could not find a single trace of the lady, and none of the locals were willing to help, either. However, they could not return empty handed so soon. They continted to search the nearby area, however futile they realized it was at this point. She had escaped, that was that.============================= IGNews =============================
Message: 10/22 Posted Author Shuttle Crashes into the Corona Ho Tue May 03 Danik The IGN logo spins across the screen, which soon fades to the newsroom and anchorman Roy Anderson. An insert to the top left of the screen shows fires coming from the Corona House on Corellia, with firefighting units on the scene putting out the blaze. "Early today a Lambda-class shuttle, which was seen leaving a docking bay on Corellia in distress, exploded in mid-flight and crashed into the Corona House. The fire spread to the nearby Imperial camp set up. Firefighting units were quickly dispatched to the Corona House to put out the blaze, but a significant portion of the Corona House is in ruins and the fire destroyed a portion of the Imperial camp. Reports from Corellia have confirmed that several Imperial military transports, carrying stormtroopers, were seen entering the docking bay which the shuttle took off from a good ten to fifteen minutes prior to the crash. So far Imperial and Corellian officials have declined to comment." ============================================================================== Later... Survivors of the Imperial task force, and newly arrived reinforcements, led by Danik Kreldin, were now securing the starport, gathering the dead and tending to the wounded. It was a few minutes following Mira's escape from their clutches, the return of the squad he sent to hunt Mira down, and the discovery of the crate that Danik Kreldin had been desperately searching for. The crate, messed up from the large fall it took, was easy to open with help from a few stormtroopers, and the contents of the crate were laid out before Kreldin. Books, papers, and documents that made little or no sense to Kreldin. In Danik's fifty-four years of life, he had experienced the Jedi, and their eradication from the universe, but despite this, his knowledge of their religion was unknown to the Imperial. But he knew Starling could made use of this. He was now certain of what she was, his mind flashing back to Trandosha. He now had to deliver the crate to her. Picking up the comlink Sinestra handed to him, Kreldin contacted her and announced the success of his mission. The security droid that had stayed behind at the starport was frantically sweeping the area around Danik, keeping careful watch over all that he was doing with the crate and its contents. It had the nagging presence of an overbearing mother or guardian but was smart enough to keep from getting in the way, lest someone order it be shot down. For the moment it was alone, and did not have the protection of its master. That soon changes. From out of the shadows of the buildings surrounding the tarmac, Sinestra emerges. Her hair is loose, and some of the locks that frame her face are curling slightly in the humidity, as if they have recently been damp and then dried in the open air. She herself looks tired, her eyes slightly sunken beneath those blue-lensed glasses she wears, her gait lacking the raw energy she was brimming with on her initial visit to the base camp outside Corona House. It is not a minute after acknowledging Danik's communication to her, and it comes from the general direction of the large building now scarred by the Lambda's passing, but several city blocks closer to the tarmac. When Sinestra appears, the droid excites and skirts in much closer to the Imperial than it had been brave enough to attempt before, waiting there cheerfully for its master. "You have something for me," the woman states in greeting as she comes to a stop nearby. The team of Imperials had not bothered with the droid that had been watching over them in the near distance, as their attention had been mostly fixed on the crate and the all too soon arrival of Sinestra. The several stormtroopers around Danik stepped away as the lady arrived, leaving Kreldin to deal with her. Folding his hands behind his back, Kreldin looked into Sinestra's blue-lenses glasses and stood in a military manner, despite Sinestra had no apparent military ranking. Danik did it merely out of respect...and a certain level of fear. "Yes, Ms. Starling..the crate, as you told me. I don't fully understand its contents, but it is definitely related to the Jedi. As for the Jedi themselves, Aurejin attempted to escape but his ship was wired and exploded as he done so. We've sent a team to the crash site now, and we doubt he made it out alive. As for the female, she well..escaped," he said, moving a bit as he announced that most unfortunate news. Mira was the one Sinestra wanted badly. The respect... as well as the fear that came with it... was appreciated. Enough so that Sinestra seems willing to forgive the fact that the crate has been opened, its contents pulled out and put on display. It helps that having them out and visible makes it easier for her to see just what she's gotten from this little adventure. Perhaps her trip to Corellia was not a loss after all. "Have it repacked," she tells him cooly, eyes still on the prize spread out before them, "Carefully." If any of the crate's contents were to get damaged, she would surely have someone's head over it, but things like that need not be said aloud. One word wrapped carefully in a certain tone can convey the same with much more of a subtle edge. "I will ensure it gets safely to my ship." Talk of Aurejin brings her gaze back up to Kreldin. "The Jedi was not with the ship when it hit the ground," she informs him. "But let us just say... his fall was not a pleasant one." Nothing is said of the landing. "You should spread your search to the area directly beneath the ship when the explosives were detonated, but take caution- animals are at their most dangerous while wounded." And Mira. Sinestra wanted possession of the little rat so badly she could taste the blood and bile in the back of her throat. That she managed to escape is not something that pleases her. Not at all. However her anger will not be taken out on Kreldin tonight. He had gotten her the crate. Aurejin had been dealt with to the best of her ability. There would be time for the others later. "She may seek out the fallen Master. Have your patrols watch for her in those areas they search." Danik nodded at the lady, then turned to two of the stormtroopers who were standing to the side, doing their best to inconspicuous. "Pack up the documents in the crate. Carefully." The stormtroopers went to work immediately, placing the books and documents back into the crate, slowly and carefully, then closed the crate and handed it off to Kreldin. "Here it is, Ms. Starling. One of my men will escort you back to your ship," he said, presenting the crate towards Sinestra." "That is..most unfortunate he survived. Thank you for informing me.. very well, we'll intesify our patrols and search radius. The Jedi won't escape us. If Mira is as bound to her Master as you say, he'll provide good bait for us. You need not worry, those Jedi won't escape us." Sinestra and her security droid alike watch as the Stormtroopers pack the crate back up again. The droid is more obvious about the whole process, nosing in quite close and hovering about to make sure these men do not forget their orders. Once it's handed to Kreldin, the droid merely hovers at the level of his shoulder, then once Sinestra takes possession of it the droid circles her a single time before fanning out into the starport. The path to the ship must be scouted out for her, escort or not. "They are potentially more dangerous together than they are apart. Finding her enroute would be most advisable," she suggests, as truly, she did not want to see more of Kreldin's men die today. At least not without having the girl. "His present condition leaves much to be desired, but do not let your troops underestimate his ability, or you will have far fewer of them in the end." For now, Sinestra will claim what little victory she can. The crate was hers, and she had put a severe hurt on the one it belonged to. If his body survived the last half hour, perhaps this would leave a wound on his psyche less easily forgotten. So childlike to have pride over taking away another's precious things for no reason other than spite, but satisfying. Very satisfying. "I will leave you to your work, Kreldin. Good job." Words of praise do not come from her lips often, and they do not continue beyond the two spoken. With them, she turns as if prepared to leave, not bothering to check if her escort is ready or able to keep up. "Contact me if the Master's death is confirmed, or if the girl is found." From SW1ki, a Wikia wiki.
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