Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 59: Seek and Find and Stuck

He was ignoring her. That was the only explanation for the silence. Sure, he’d been unconscious but Shadow could feel his mind was working on overdrive. If he wasn’t ignoring her, she’d have commented about how overdrive for his mind was low performance for the average Ewok. But he still wasn’t listening. That made it yet another comment wasted. And she’d come up with a lot of them by now. Why?! She growled to herself.

Shadow had gotten tired of her human body barely five minutes after leaving the cave. No one was watching her, so she ditched the mask and morphed. Problems arose from this, as the cooling suit was not designed for Alraxians. This caused two problems. The first, and most important to her, was the lack of tail space. The sudden pain that stabbed through her when the tail was remorphed in such an enclosed space was far too much to deal with. Thankfully, no one was around to see her collapse and whimper before finally cutting a makeshift hole in the one piece tunic.

With the pain gone, she’d finally been able to breathe normally, which led her to realize the second problem. The cooling units within the suit were freezing her. Far too cold. In fact, with the pain gone she could barely feel anything but the ice cold against the morphsuit. And considering how thin that way, it might as well have been a layer of ice on her skin. Somehow, she managed to get the cooling suit off. As she recovered and wrapped the robe around her for extra warmth, Shadow did not allow reason to escape her. She buried the cooling suit so that it wouldn’t be found, and then had stated up the rocky path again.

By now, she stood at the brink of the plateau, looking over it very carefully. Guards. Too many to deal with and still get in unnoticed. Her eyes looked around for any sign of native life to copy, but found nothing. Beyond these Narani, there was no sign of life on the rock. Not like Endor...such an amazing planet. So full of life. And color. At least Arranis was warm...

Alright, no native life to morph to. No way to just walk in. The option left was a stupid one. Ducking down, Shadow grinned. It would work. She saw no native life anywhere in the sky. No ships. No speeders. No nothing. Perfect. At first, she thought about discarding the robe, but decided that she had the training to morph that too. It would be helpful once inside. So, with her usual focus, her body changed. Where the Alraxian child had been, a small bird, native to most of the planets in the Core Worlds now stood, testing its wings. Nothing in the sky. Which meant no reason to look up. Which also meant she could fly in without any trouble if she did it right. And she was going to do it right.

In a flash of movement that the guards simply dismissed as a trick of the light(besides, what else could it be?), Shadow was in the sky, flying up and over the city of Haladin. Flying was truly an amazing thing to do, and one she had to force herself not to be distracted by. So as her small, avian body focused itself on staying airborne, Shadow’s conscious mind reached out. It was an interesting mix between the Force and her link to Akan. Finding him through the link took no time at all, as he was always there, consciously or not. Using the feelings of annoyance, loneliness, and a strange sense of impending worry through the link, Shadow used that to accent her search with the Force itself. And then she had him. Or maybe he had her. He certainly ‘spoke’ first.

[Late as usual.] sounded his voice through her mind.

Shadow just send him an annoyed feeling before latching onto his mind like a small blip on a ship’s scanner. [You need to stop trying to show off.]

[It worked, didn’t it?]

Again, Shadow sent him that annoyed feeling, keeping a good altitude and getting ready for a straight dive down into what felt like an empty alleyway. [That’s debatable.]

There was a pause and Shadow felt Akan’s mind working on something that was likely important. Hopefully he wouldn’t screw that up. Again, his voice sounded through her mind. [Was just about to leave...but I think we’ll stay put until you get here. Where are you?]

Shadow ignored this question, and latched onto a vital word in what he’d said. [We...?]

Another pause, this time Shadow felt an awkward and momentary panic from Akan. He composed himself and managed a fairly ‘normal’ response. [That girl from back in the cave...she uh...helped a little.]

[Right...] Shadow would have grinned if she could, even if Akan wasn’t able to see it. She did send him the mental equivalent of the expression, which worked very well as it just made you feel someone was grinning at you and you couldn’t see them. A thousand times worse than having the feeling of being watched. For a long moment, Shadow focused on Akan even stronger. He shone like a beacon on a moonless night when she tried to find him hard enough.

Carefully, Shadow circled above the building she could feel him in, and took a good overview of the area. He was on the complete opposite side of the town as the entrance they had used, but there was an entrance right near. The plateau looked like it went on for a long distance in the other direction, though, not just dropping off like on the ‘front’ side. Waiting until the street cleared, Shadow dove down. She landed between the back of the building and the large wall, already morphing back the second she was out of sight.

Shadow landed, heavy robe still comfortably wrapped around her Alraxian body. She checked the robe again, and made sure everything was where it should be. Pulling the hood up and making sure it masked her features, Shadow stepped around and casually out onto the street. There were a few people walking, but no one took notice of another heavy robe. She stepped to the door and simply ‘said’. [Open it.]

[You know, if the door opens next to you, you’ll never live this down.] Akan commented almost deviously.

But, thankfully, the door in front of her did open. A wave of fear and doubt shot through her, though, as the face meeting Shadow’s was not Akan. It was a girl. The fear passed as quickly as it appeared, and Shadow stepped in to see Akan sitting on a bed opposite the door. He was still human, and when she pulled back her hood, a slight gasp was heard from Shira. This was because she hadn’t expected it(considering she’d only seen either of them as humans) and the door hadn’t finished closing.

Shadow’s cold look silenced any questions. After Shira slowly moved to sit down, Shadow’s eyes turned on Akan, “She complicates things.”

“So you’re saying three of us are stuck here, now?” asked Akan, raising an eyebrow and obviously bating her.

At that, Shadow shook her head, “It will just take thinking.”

“Thinking?” Akan sounded genuinely surprised, “I thought all of your plans involved rushing in blindly.”

“I only do that to make you feel more intelligent,” she shot back.

Akan was getting ready to say something, but Shira cut in, asking, “So...do you two plan to argue like children or are you going to think up a way to get out of here?”

Silence ensued as the two of them turned glares on Shira. Of course, they knew she was right, so eventually calmed and started thinking. Shadow still didn’t completely trust Shira, but Akan seemed to be doing his naive Jedi trustworthiness act(though it wasn’t really an act as much as a state of being for him, it seemed). So, she would just keep an eye on this girl. And an ear. Possibly a few claws if it was necessary. Eventually, Akan said, “I think we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way.”

Shadow already knew what he was thinking, as she had started helping his ideas along as soon as they’d become apparent through the link. Shira had began to ask a question as to what he meant, but Shadow cut in with a nod and said, “I don’t like it, but you’re right. Unless she stays.”

Talking like Shira wasn’t even in the room. Normal Shadow. She honestly didn’t care at this point, more than a bit annoyed that the girl was making this much more complicated because of her lack of ability to morph. Looking to Shadow, the girl shook her head, “If you two leave, I should go with you. I can’t get to Caars’ place without drawing too much attention.”

Expected. So, the hard way. Shadow sighed and closed her eyes, “Then we get out as one. Where are the landspeeders kept?”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 60: Contact

“This is just too much ground to cover,” Voort commented after their third stop through the exploration of the desert. It was not, according to Hansen, the deep desert yet. In fact, that was well beyond the bleak horizon. Sand. Spreading out in all directions. They had stopped each time at a rock outcropping. According to Hansen, natural caves provided the best cover and were common sites for small communities. She failed to mention until much later that they should also be watching the ground closely. Watching for small, almost miniature dunes. Those were signs of an ‘opening’ down to a Topsider community. Most of which were below ground, though many of the males resided in the caves of Narani who had been driven off.

Hansen, who was standing up on a larger rock, trying to examine the rest of the outcropping for any kind of cave. Seeing none, she sighed and allowed herself to nod, “There is still much ground to cover.”

Another sigh came from Landau. He was sitting on top of the canopy of the landspeeder, allowing his backside to burn on the metal but not really minding it all the much. Once you got used to the heat, it really wasn’t all that bad. His eyes were on the distant horizon ahead of them, watching as the star that Arranis orbited began its long and slow fall below the horizon. Over his shoulder, he said, “We’ll want to be getting back soon.”

Stepping down from her perch, Hansen nodded with a look of dismay across her face, “Yes...”

Jen, who was standing next to Voort and pondering the lack of wildlife. There should be at least something, as the Topsiders were apparently native. That meant that life had once developed here. But where was the rest of it? It seemed highly unlikely that all of the reptilian creatures that Topsiders evolved from had simply disappeared. Then what? All of them evolved? Again, unlikely. Somehow, Jen had a feeling that this was an important link in a chain she knew nothing about. Hearing the new discussion on heading back, Jen raised an eyebrow, “I thought we had a ways to go?”

“We do,” said Hansen, passing by Voort and Jen and moving back to the speeder, “But night in the desert here is dangerous.”

“I get the feeling it isn’t just the drop in temperature,” Voort said quietly to Jen as a side comment.

Jen smiled at this, but stayed silent. Hearing his friend’s comment, Landau also smiled and climbed down off of the speeder, “Topsiders do their hunting at night.”

Despite not having encountered the reptilian natives of Arranis yet, the constant worries about the Topsiders were enough for even Voort to want to avoid them if possible. Not needing any more encouragement, he stepped down and walked over to the speeder. Jen followed, and in a matter of minutes they were all back in the speeder. Hansen had the engines powered up and they were off, turning back to the west where the larger rock formations were. Where their temporary home was.

After only a few minutes traveling across the slowly darkening desert, Jen began to feel a strange...almost pushing at her mind. It was subtle, but in no way gentle. Almost...searching, but more like prying. Hunting even. Carefully, she tugged on Voort’s sleeve gently. Leaning close, she whispered, “I...there’s something...”

Voort just nodded, speaking even quieter, “Push it out of your mind. Focus on something else and he will go.”

He. The moment that she heard the word, she thought the name. A twinge of pain shot through her mind before she managed to push the thought away with another. At first, Jen found herself thinking of home. Alderaan. So many years ago. At a time like this, smiling was almost out of place, but a small smile did creep onto her face. But despite the pain the memories would bring when she allowed, if she simply remembered the look on her sister’s face the day she’d been married. Strangely, though, her thoughts wandered. From that, she saw friends. Some long dead, but she felt not reason to grieve, simply glad to see their faces at least once more. But one face...one face she stared at for a long time.

Opening her mouth to say something, Jen was surprised to be at a loss for words. Voort saw this, and raised an eyebrow. She tried again, barely managing to speak, “You...you were the one on Mon Calamari.”

A strange look suddenly washed over Voort. A mix of pain, remembrance, and something else she couldn’t pinpoint. And then a realization came over him, too, as she remember her face from ten years earlier, “The scientist that got away...”

“You were Talon,” Jen said, remembering the massacre at the research facility she’d been stationed at on Mon Calamari during the Rebellion. Wiped out by what was at first assumed to be a larger Imperial Commando force, but was soon discovered to be the act of a single Imperial. This discovery came from the fact that two more facilities were lost in much the same way soon after. Talon was that Imperial. And Voort was Talon. No wonder she’d felt a strange sense of familiarity upon seeing him. The day her friends had been killed, she’d hid in a locker, and stared through the slits straight into his face. She was sure he knew she was there...but he simply left. Why...?

“You reminded me of my wife,” Voort said very quietly.

Nothing else was spoken on this. What could be said? He’d killed many of her friends, and that was only a matter of years after her family and other friends were killed on Alderaan. It had seemed like a perfect one two punch...and here was the man who delivered the second. And yet...there was a feeling there that shouldn’t have been. Something she couldn’t completely explain just yet, but part of her worried about what it could mean. Or even if it was a good thing.

The speeder stopped. That snapped Jen and Voort back into the reality around them. The sun had set, leaving a large black with only slight blues from the light of the small moon hanging in the sky. No question had to be asked as to why they’d stopped. It was plainly obvious. A large group of humanoid shapes stood in the way. In fact, they were now surrounding the speeder completely. Part of Voort thought that they should just plow on through, but the large build of the creatures warned against that. It was likely they’d manage to cause damage to the speeder before it got away.

“Topsiders,” Landau said, already getting his blaster pistol out and very thankful for the close canopy of the speeder.

“A large group,” added Hansen, glancing back to Voort and Jen.

Voort sat forward, carefully examining the long blades in many of the now noticeably reptilian creatures. If the powerful tails didn’t give that away , the lizard like heads sure did. Even in the low light. But the blades were what had Voort’s attention. Half meter...no, at least meter long swords of a metal he couldn’t identify in the low light. Just as he was about to comment on an possible course of action, one of the Topsiders, dead center, stepped forward.

It...no, he stopped directly in front of the speeder’s nose. The Topsider had a large, sand colored tone to its scales. He wore what looked to be a lighter version of the Narani’s robe, minus the hood. Tilting his head slightly, the two eyes could be seen focusing to try to see through the viewport. As they all sat waiting, the Topsider spoke in a harsh, strained Basic, “You will sssstep out of thisss machine, Narani.”

All of them exchanged glances. It was agreed upon that this was a bad idea. However, so was staying inside. None of them thought that debating the point that they were not Narani was a good idea. Thankfully, only Hansen wore robes that would make her look like the Narani. The others had forgone the robes while traveling in the relative comfort of the speeder. So...they opened the canopy.

At the movement, all of the topsiders jumped, a low hissing sound heard from all of them. Well, except the one that had spoken. The fact that neither Hansen nor Landau had ever known a Topsider to speak Basic was another major point being avoided. Though they all stepped out, weapons were raised and aimed. Hansen’s at the Topsider standing closest, while Jen and Landau simply had weapons out in a more defensive position. Voort, though, only kept a hand at his belt. Every single one of them, save Voort and the lead Topsider, looked ready to pounce and kill at the slightest signal.

The two that stood still, however, were carefully watching each other as only predators could. The Topsider tilted its head, examining Voort in a very careful fashion. In a moment, he extended a clawed hand towards Voort, “You...you are not Narani...”

“No. I’m not,” Voort responded, flatly and dangerously. The advantage was in his hands, if only because the Topsider showed surprise and Voort an eerie calm. Even the other Topsiders saw this. All weapons lowered, as it quickly became obvious that neither Voort or this Topsider(despite the sign of surprise) were to be trifled with.

“You...you not hunt ussss?” another question, though this time not nearly as surprised when compared to the Topsider’s first words. The creature was connecting and thinking. Far beyond the limits that Landau had described them. Obviously, these Topsiders were not all stupid brutes.

Voort’s tone, though, did not change, still holding the same cold air to it, “We do not.”

And then, in that moment when all the built up tension seemed to be ready to fade away, something snapped. Or rather, someone. From behind Voort, a Topsider hissed something in a strange language. A second later, there was a chorus of yells, and then they all charged. He and the lead Topsider exchanged last glances before both raised their weapons and charged each other. There was no choice left now.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 61: It Never Seems to Get Better

There is a saying that pertains to the best laid plans of mice and men. For some reason, this excludes felines and reptiles. Currently, in two locations across Arranis at nearly the exact same moment, three of those types of creatures were finding that their well laid plans were most definitely crumbling. While in the middle of the desert under the dim moonlight, the humans and reptiles did what they could to salvage their lives from a costly and foolish mistake, within the walled city of Haladin, a pair felines were having a similar problem.

All had gone well as they got to a landspeeder to leave the city with, when something just snapped, not unlike what occurred in the desert. It was hard to figure out exactly what it was that went wrong, but there were likely a number of factors. Major ones included the shredded and hole-ridden condition of Akan’s robe, the fact that Shadow refused to morph back to human, and the three unconscious bodies now strewn across the ground in front of the speeder. They’d asked a question in a language Shadow didn’t understand, and before Shira had a chance to answer it, weapons were drawn. Shadow reacted by knocking them out, but there hadn’t been time to hide the bodies before more arrived.

Now, the three of them were crouched behind a low wall, ten meters from the speeder. A short distance that they were tempted to make a break for, if not for the group of angry Narani who were firing slugthrowers at them.

“I didn’t see anyone else!!” Shadow growled at Akan as he fired his blaster over the wall, not really doing anything but trying to keep the Narani back.

Akan just glared at her, crouching down carefully and trying to find a way out of this. They’d be in a lot of trouble if the Narani came around from behind them. Shira, who had drawn a small slugthrower pistol fired off a couple of shots in the direction of their attackers before ducking back behind the wall. Accusingly, she looked to Shadow, “I was about to tell them that they were invading our privacy and insulting our honor! They would have left us!”

Shadow’s glare was icy cold, though she said nothing to the girl. Akan ducked back down below the wall and cursed as a shot skimmed right off the top, nearly taking some of his hair with it. With a relieved look on his face, he turned his attention to the two females who looked about ready to murder each other. Or rather, Shadow would skin Shira. No question about that. Raising his blaster and getting ready to fire another volley, he said to them, “Will you two stop bickering and figure out how we get to that speeder?!”

After only getting off two shots, Akan was dragged back down under the cover by Shadow. She gave him a ‘you’re an idiot’ look and ‘said’. [Give me the blaster. Then stand up, draw attention, and do what you’re best at.]

Akan paused a moment, but handed her the weapon and figured out what she was saying. He unhooked the lightsaber from his belt and looked to Shira, “Stay with Shadow.”

Then, he pivoted up to his feet and activated the blue-green lightsaber. All the shots started turning on him, and he rolled to the side to give the other two a good amount of room as he did what he was best at: Getting shot at. If his shredded robe didn’t prove that, then nothing in the galaxy could. It was no problem at all deflecting the shots from the slugthrowers. These Narani were definitely good marksman, but the speed of the weapons was much less than that of a blaster, giving Akan even more time to allow the Force to guide his lightsaber.

Through their link, Akan relayed the positions of where the Narani were. It was problematic, as they were using the speeder and garage for cover. Shadow seemed to be working something out, and every few seconds she sprayed the area with blaster fire, as Shira did with her slugthrower. It kept the Narani on their toes and forced them to deal with Akan now directly in front of them(which played havoc with their cover) and the two others firing from off to the side. As Akan continued to move, attempting to get even more attention by slowly moving forward, Shadow grabbed Shira’s arm.

The girl gave Shadow a confused look, and Shadow said sharply, “Five more steps, and we run to the speeder. Understand?”

Shira nodded, then turned to fire off two more shots. She sighed when she turned back, sitting back against the wall. Out of ammunition. Shira had fired off so many shots she’d lost count, and hearing that sudden ‘click’ was horrible. At least Shadow...no, Akan’s blaster was still firing without trouble.

Akan took the steps.

By the time Shira noticed this, Shadow had already jumped over the wall and was charging in with the blaster blazing. Shira spun around and got to her feet, following and noticing that Akan was only a few meters from the speeder now. The Narani had mostly fled behind the garage itself, though a couple of foolish ones had stayed in the garage itself. They quickly received blaster bolts from Shadow. This did not, however, stop the others from shooting once they’d gotten to more cover. Akan was now standing on the opposite side of the speeder, though, keeping the shots from getting to either Shira or Shadow, behind him.

The two of them got in, and Shira started up the speeder while Shadow tugged at Akan, “Get in!”

Because there was no cover over the speeder, all Akan had to do was step back and then hop into the back section while watching where his lightsaber was. He managed to turn around, sitting up and turning back to face the Narani who continued to fire on them. He continue to deflect the shots just as Shira cut the main engines on, and they shot forward and out of Haladin.

The sudden motion had sent Akan to the side, nearly falling off the back of the speeder in the process. The lightsaber was deactivated by reflex, and it was a good thing as Akan’s face would have contacted the blade if it was still there. Pulling himself back down to the seat, Akan gave one last look to the dim lights of the city, then turned back to the night ahead of them.

The speeder wobbled slightly for a moment, and Shadow spun around to look at Akan as if it was his fault. Managing a weak shrug, he turned his attention to Shira. She looked...well, no it was hard to tell in the dark, but she did look pale. Pale. Strange. Then he noticed her robe looked darker on her shoulder.

“Shadow can you pilot this thing?” Akan asked, moving over and getting ready to drag Shira into the back.

[I can try...where are we going, all knowing one?] Shadow asked in a far too casual manner considering the situation they’d just gotten out of.

[Anywhere but Haladin.] replied Akan as he reached over and, to Shira’s surprise, pulled her up and over into the back of the speeder with him. This was easy because he’d taken the time to return to his stronger Alraxian form. That was a second surprise from Shira, but it quickly passed as he pulled the robe off her shoulder, “You should have mention you were hit.”

She just shrugged, “Its not bad.”

“Its bad enough,” Akan commented with a shiver, realizing the sudden drop in temperature. In fact, his body was feeling more uncomfortable that usual. Trying to ignore this, Akan did his best to tend to the Shira’s wound. Quickly, he found that she could do much better herself, and he was soon just holding the robe while she cleaned the blood off herself.

Shadow’s voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts. [Human again...we’ll freeze without the morphsuits.]

As she ‘said’ that, Akan noticed that the dark shape that was Shadow shrunk slightly, and the white hair became fully black. Waiting until Shira wasn’t looking, Akan followed suit and was back to his human body after only a few minutes. Sure, it was his...but he was getting used to being Alraxian and all this changing was getting to him.

“There should be a small cave somewhere near one of the larger rocks,” Shira commented.

Neither Akan nor Shadow had to mention that there were a lot of rocks that qualified as ‘large’. And then, Akan heard a noise which horrified him. It was not something that one usually worried about while in a landspeeder, but considering where they’d just left, it was most definitely something to worry about. It was the distinctive sound of a turbolaser battery firing.

And not half a second later, the ground behind the speeder erupted in a shower of sand, rock, and flame. Shadow had barely enough time to react, pulling the speeder to the side enough that instead of flipping back over front, it went into a roll. The strength of the repulsor units within the speeder itself was not enough to hold them in as they usually did, and the three of them were thrown to the ground as the speeder slammed into a rock not twenty meters away. None of them had stopped moving when a second shot from the turbolaser battery was heard, but Akan had been too disoriented and hit a rock hard before getting a chance to truly identify it.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 62: Orange Blades

The Topsiders had gotten very close to Voort before his aura of calm suddenly exploded in movement. All at once, the five reptiles were bringing own heavy swords towards him, but suddenly, in a blinding flash of movement that even a droid couldn’t detect, they were all on the ground in at least two pieces. In the center of the body ring, looking over his shoulder to another group of Topsiders who had halted there advance out of shock, was Voort. His dull grey eyes seemed tinted in a soft orange, but that was not from within but without. In his right hand, held back and up after the strong swing that had killed five Topsiders at once, was a lightsaber with an orange blade extending from both ends.

Suddenly, the calm moment was gone and Voort charged the second group of Topsiders. Cleaving easily through two of the lead Topsiders, a third and forth both managed to finish their swings. Of course, in both cases Voort was out of the way, spinning to the side and between the blades, while his lightsaber killed both of the attackers when he moved out of the position. Quickly ducking down out of the way of a horizontal swing from one of the remaining Topsiders, Voort rose up and brought the primary blade up in a vertical slice, slicing the reptile into two neat pieces. Before the body could collapse, Voort’s opposite blade cut the Topsider into fourths, which in turn killed a second Topsider just to his left.

As Voort was a blur of motion, single handedly massacring more than half of the Topsiders, the other three humans were having trouble. Specifically with the Topsider’s apparent leader. Like Voort, this Topsider was a machine with his sword, slicing left and right and taking a few chunks of Jen’s hair as she barely managed to move out of the way. The only way Jen had avoided the third strike was that Hansen’s slugthrower rifle had been fired, and the bullet had by chance hit the Topsider’s arm. This sent the swing off to the left, but there was no other noticeable effect in the Topsider beyond an angry hiss. From the way the Topsider dove at Jen again, it looked like the slugthrower shot had done nothing at all beyond put a small hole in his arm.

Somehow, Jen managed to sidestep out of the way of a downward strike meant to double the amount of Jen currently occupying the desert. And though she got out of the way of that, she back into the landspeeder. Jen had only a millisecond to wish for another shot from Hansen or even Landau, but from the sounds around her, they were dealing with the remaining Topsiders. This gave her only another millisecond to sight the sharp Topsider’s blade catch the moonlight and shine brightly as it cleaved through the air down at her. Reacting, almost feeling as if something was forcing her to react rather that her actually doing it herself, Jen spun to the left. She could feel both the rush of air from the blade and the shock that accompanied the loud crash when it dug into the landspeeder.

It took a full two seconds for the Topsider to pry his blade out of the speeder’s hull, and this was exactly enough time for Jen to get completely to her feet and away from the speeder. However, by the time she’d raised the blaster pistol to fire on him, the Topsider was swinging at her. The surprise was that she didn’t get sliced into two. Instead, the butt of the hilt smacked her hard across the face, sending Jen hard into the sand below and leaving her with a near concussion. Through blurred and shifting vision, Jen caught sight of the Topsider stand over her and bring the blade down in a stabbing motion. It was not like many holodramas where the villain made a quick speech to tell the victim something, even if it was only “Now you die” before the blade was dropped. Instead, the second the Topsider was there, the blade was falling. But, something that happened commonly in holodramas occurred in front of Jen’s still confused eyes.

A sudden, hard nothing slammed into the Topsider, sending the reptile sprawling over her and landing hard on the ground at Jen’s side. The dark night suddenly exploded with an unearthly blue. But the blue was not from a star, or a glowrod, or anything that was anything recognizable to Jen. Instead, it was an arc. Arcing over her and slamming into the Topsider next to her. It coursed through the thrashing body for a long moment, before a voice that Jen would later identify as Landau yelled, “Hold, Captain! Hold!”

And then...it stopped. There was one last, vague noise off to Jen’s left. A humming sound. Constant, and waving slightly every few moments. But then, with a strange reverse snap-hiss sound, the hum disappeared, and only the sound of a groan remained. Slowly, as the world around her stopped its wavering and began to come back into focus, Jen turned her head to find that the source of the groaning was the Topsider.

Footsteps approached from two sides, one pair stopping right next to her before kneeling down. Jen turned her head and managed a smile. Even in the dim light, she could tell it was Voort. He carefully helped her to sit up, resting a hand on her cheek and finding that her jaw was not, in fact, broken.

“Why did you stop him?” snapped the sharp voice of Hansen, who had holstered her weapon and was looking down at the half-alive Topsider, “This thing should die.”

“Landau was right,” Voort said slowly, calmly, “I got carried away. This one should not die.”

Nodding in agreement, Landau knelt down next to the Topsider and looked into the two large, dazed eyes, “It was about to negotiate before one of the others got jumpy.”

Hansen said nothing, but made an annoyed scoff and stepped over to the landspeeder, busying herself with nothing until the others got to the speeder and they could leave. While Voort made sure that Jen was alright, not speaking at all of his actions, Landau studied the reptilian creature laying on his back in the cold sand. The Topsider was breathing in a labored fashion, and upon noticing that he was being examined, spoke raspily, “You not...kill me...”

“No,” Landau answered in a neutral voice.

Slowly, the Topsider’s head looked to Voort, Jen, then back to Landau, “Why...?”

“You are not as savage as you want us to believe,” came the second answer from Landau, not completely answering the question but coming very close to it. For Voort, it was a good explanation. But when the Topsider said nothing, Landau tried a simpler question, “Why did you stop us?”

This, the Topsider had no problem in responding to, “Narani hunt ussss for him. Come at sssunssset and killsss usss and our homesss.”

Voort and Jen exchanged looks, both thinking one simple work. Sadrak. Yet another thread woven through that man. But why kill the Topsiders? What good would that do? Landau had never seen any evidence of them being any more than a strong hunting species that when avoided, coexistence became possible. So why provoke them? It didn’t add up. Unless...

“They’re a threat to Sadrak,” Jen said quietly, saying what the two men were just coming to the conclusion of. But that led to a thousand other questions. Thankfully, those could be answered later. Here was an interesting thing. Something that Sadrak felt threatened by. That was indeed rare, and not something one should just toss away.

“What are you called?” it was Voort’s turn to speak, asking a question that was phrased oddly. Only Jen took notice of this, though.

The Topsider turned its lizard skull towards Voort, looking up at the man for a long moment before speaking, “I am Trker-Hon. I wasss...leader of my clan. However they...”

“They made a foolish choice,” Voort finished for Trker.

There was a nod from the Topsider, “Yesss. I apologize for my actionsss, but I could not jussst leave you to killsss my clanmatesss.”

Jen reached over and helped to get Trker-Hon to sit up, which surprised all of them. Quietly, she said, “No apology is necessary.”

“You are a ssstrong warrior, female,” Trker commented upon realizing who it was he was speaking to.

Even Jen couldn’t help a smile at that. There was a short pause between them all before Voort started to pull Jen to her feet, “We can speak once we get out of the dark.”

Trker-Hon nodded, “Yesss. It isss likely that Narani will be sssearching for prey sssoon.”

“Then we go now,” Landau said as he helped the Topsider up and to the speeder. This was a leader among those that Sadrak feared. Somehow, it felt like this Trker-Hon should be their enemy, too. Yet...despite the savage appearance, an intelligence was there. And a cunning. Yet despite all of it, the males of the species lived these barbaric lives. Was Trker-Hon just unique in his intelligence? Did it even matter? Too many question...too late at night.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 63: Left Behind

“She’s dead.”

The words were short, simple, and straight to the point. This marked the second occasion Akan had spoken those words. If Shadow had heard him the first time he’d spoken that, she’d worry. When he had been the one to tell Rulae and Marin, the only two other Zephyrs that survived the Coruscant assault, that Mare was dead, there had been an eerie lack of anything in his voice. He’d just said them, with no emotion beyond a wide empty nothing behind them. But this time...this time he remembered.

In seeing Shira’s body lying there in the sand among the wreckage of the speeder, there was something that had never been possible with Mare. Here, he saw a body. He could see the burns and the bruises and the cuts. With Mare, it had been easy without having to see that. But now...now this brought back long past thoughts. Things he’d sworn he’d gotten over, but had really only buried beneath another life. Here, in Shira, he’d let Mare down again. In this girl he’d never truly known, he’d failed a second time. If he’d just left with Shadow, or even been flying the thing instead of worrying about wounds he could do nothing about, she’d still be alive.

“We have to go,” Shadow said in a voice that showed she didn’t completely know what to do. Akan was kneeling down and hand a hand over Shira’s neck, wishing for a pulse but knowing that nothing could be done. There would be no miracle. No saving grace like he had recieved. For the first time, Akan wondered if he even deserved it.

Carefully, Shadow put a hand on his shoulder, “We can’t take her with us.”

Akan managed a nod, barely able to fight back the tears attempting to escape, “I know.”

When he didn’t move, Shadow pulled him to his feet slowly. Akan was acting strange, and his thoughts were well shielded from her. Whether that was on purpose or not, she couldn’t tell. Either way, she didn’t know how to deal with this other than to get out and leave time to grieve for when they could be sure it was safe to stop. Now was not that time. Though the turbolaser had only fired twice, it was likely that there would be a group sent out to make sure the three of them were dead. These Narani were not stupid. Shadow knew though, that the second they only found one body, they would scour the area. The farther she and Akan were, the better.

With Akan on his feet, Shadow started moving off to the left, not the direction they had been going. Hopefully they weren’t leaving too many easy to follow tracks...she was almost dragging Akan for the first short leg, though when she’d picked up the pace to more of a slow run, he had no problem keeping up. Good. They couldn’t bring Shira’s body because it was dead weight, and this was no time for Akan to take on those qualities. As they passed by a series of large rocks, Shadow noticed that Akan had stopped. Great.

“C’mon,” she growled, not sounding so threatening with her higher pitched human voice.

He didn’t seem to take notice, turning and looking back. Very quietly, Shadow heard him say, “We can’t just leave her body like that...”

That was it. Something in Shadow just...snapped. When a strong arm grabbed Akan and spun him around, he found himself looking at an Alraxian Shadow again. She was glaring, looking very angry, and said dangerously, “Do you want to end up like that? Because I don’t,” a claw extended, poking him roughly in the chest, “And because I don’t want to end up like that, you aren’t allowed to.”

Akan simply looked at her in the same depressed expression that had seemed to overcome him, “I could carry her body.”

As he said this, he turned and started to attempt walking back towards the wreckage that was now shining gently off near the horizon in the moonlight. This time, Shadow’s claws dug into his shoulder when she roughly pulled him back, “No, Akan! There is nothing we can do.”

“Yes there is!” he yelled at her sounding like a child who was losing an argument. In this case, that wasn’t all that far from the truth.

“Fine, then!” Shadow threw him to the ground, her tail swishing against the sand in annoyance, “Go back and get us killed.”

Then, she spun around and stormed off. Akan watched her for a long time before finally getting to his feet. Shadow didn’t seem to know how to be anything more than an emotionless killer. He looked over his shoulder back to the landspeeder wreck. His eyes traced over the horizon as he found himself seeing the past. Simple flashes of times long gone. Why did they have to end? And even if they did have to end...why like that? Why like this? There was something wrong with the galaxy. Something wrong with the Force. If there was some great plan, Akan couldn’t see it. For the first time, he found himself doubting the Force itself, but only for a short moment.

When it had passed, he made a decision. To him, it was not the right one. Head turning back towards the silhouetted figure of Shadow ahead of him(from which he could feel her cold, but she was doing a good job ignoring it), Akan started after her. Slowly at first, but eventually he broke out into a run. This was because of...something. A feeling. The Narani were searching and getting close...or at least, something was getting close. Either way, being found was not likely to be a good idea.

 

[Dakkareth]

Woah, that's some fast updating. I like it

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 64: Sneaking Off

Voort stood at the entrance to the cave, looking out across the sands of the planet. Somewhere out there, among the endless desert, was Sadrak. He could feel it. Yet something was wrong with this planet. Something that would look small from a distance, but became glaringly obvious once one got to the actual place. But what exactly it was that was wrong was impossible to determine, only that something was wrong. Unnatural perhaps was a better word. Desert planets were in no way uncommon in the galaxy, and many of them were very similar to Arranis. But something else permeated the world beyond its outer shell.

They had been back for a full hour now. Hansen was inside interrogating Trker-Hon, with Landau making sure it was nothing like the more stereotypical Imperial interrogations. He would keep it civil. Jen had gone to rest, exhausted from the activity. Nothing was said about her injured leg, which had proved to be no problem at all when the time came for her to move. Healed quickly...too quickly. Another oddity that would need to be checked out when the time came.

But that time was not now. There was no sign of either Akan or Shadow, and to add to that, Hansen had mentioned that a girl named Shira was also gone. The last would not have been worried about, except that there had been no word from her for far too long. Whether the incidents were connected, Voort didn’t know. It was possible that both Akan and Shadow were captured or killed while in Haladin. They were both very resourceful, but impaired judgement was playing around with the both of them. Akan should not have stayed in Haladin on his own, and Shadow should not have gone back alone.

It would be easy to simply forget about them. After all, it was just some animal and a kid who thought he was a Jedi. But no...that was not Voort anymore. Maybe years ago he would have truly believed that, but times had changed. He had changed. He saw this change in him reflected through Landau, who had always been a good man at heart. But Hansen. She was not a bad person, but she clung to ideals that were dead. Most of these former Imperials within the cave network clung to them. Not too long ago, these would have been Voort’s comrades. Now, though, they were simply there.

Voort’s thoughts stopped when he heard movement behind him. It took only a moment to identify who it was. He’d learned the pattern of walking and movement already. Without turning around, he said quietly, “Are you feeling better?”

Stepping over next to him and looking out over the desert, Jen nodded, “He’s gone again.”

Turning down to look at the rocks below, Voort allowed himself a gentler expression, “Good. The rest helped?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Voort noticed Jen smile, “I didn’t rest.”

“Worried about the kids?” ventured Voort, finally turning to look at her.

She just shrugged, “More worried about you.”

With that short sentence, Jen had brought up a conversation they’d had(although quietly) while returning in the landspeeder. His mood darkened and he allowed himself a long sigh, “I’ve warned you before.”

“You have,” Jen agreed, giving him a concerned, almost motherly look, “But that’s doesn’t change things”

“It does,” he said flatly, not looking her in the eye and avoiding her gaze altogether, “You know well enough by now what I am.”

At that, Voort was surprised by Jen’s actions. She stepped in front of him and carefully rested a hand on his cheek, a strangely kind expression on her face, “You aren’t all bad, Titus. There’s light in there.”

“Only in memories,” answered Voort, stepping to the side and looking up the large cliff face.

This did not deter Jen. In the same voice, she said, “You know that’s not true.”

Voort wanted to say something. He truly wanted to agree with her, or even disagree with her. But for some reason, he simply couldn’t find the right words for anything. There was a long, strangely comfortable silence between them before Voort finally found some words that would work. Even if they did completely change the subject.

“We will need both of them if we’re going to confront Sadrak again.”

Jen was not surprised by the sudden change of subject, and simply moved along with it. It wasn’t hard to read where Voort’s thoughts were going, and the months they’d spent together had only assisted this, “Right now, though?”

“Can you think of a better time?” he answered her question with another equally valid one.

She couldn’t help but agree, allowing a quick glance back into the cave, “Alone?”

“We’ll be back by nightfall.”

At that, Jen couldn’t hold back a short laugh, “The sun hasn’t even come up yet.”

Voort allowed himself a grin, “Then we’d better get going.”

There was a short pause where Jen wondered if Voort was really being serious. When he turned and walked into the cave without another word, she was sure of it. Truthfully, the first thing one would think he’d do after speaking those words was to jump down and head off. But really, that would be stupid without any kind of defense. A smile on her face, Jen did her best to make her self hard to notice before sneaking off to get her things.

 

[freedoms_edge]

Crazy amount of updating, but thats just keeping me more and more hooked!

Loved the change of pace in the last one, switched from non-stop
gut-pounding action to a very personal, reflective moment between two of the characters. Voort is fantastic, an incredibly deep character - soooo many levels, tho Jen seems to have spotted every single one of them!

Please please please keep more of this coming!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Crazy amount of updating, but thats just keeping me more and more hooked!

Goood...goood. My evil plot continues.

Loved the change of pace in the last one, switched from non-stop
gut-pounding action to a very personal, reflective moment between two of the characters. Voort is fantastic, an incredibly deep character - soooo many levels, tho Jen seems to have spotted every single one of them!

Honestly, I've had to up the action for this section. The first part really was non-stop go mode from one thing to another, but once we got to Arranis things slowed down to almost a crawl. Not that it was BAD, lots of RPing and such, but it got a little strange as they needed to be dealing with something that was being avoided.

Funny that you like Voort. I never liked him that much. Don't know why, actually. I'm doing my best to not let it show in the writing, and I guess its working. What can I say, Akan was(well, is) so much of myself that some of his dislike for Voort snuck into me.

Please please please keep more of this coming!

Working on today's update right now. Glad you like it.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 65: Distracting Games

“They didn’t track us,” Shadow commented quietly, more to quiet the question Akan had been about to ask than to make either of them feel better. Akan had his mouth half open to speak when she’d said that, so he closed his mouth and looked a bit useless. What was the point of communication if she always answered questions before he asked them?

He paused for a moment...when she didn’t respond to that mental question, Akan smiled to himself. At least some thoughts didn’t seep through all the time. Privacy had at first seemed impossible with the link, but the longer it had been around, the better the both of them had gotten at keeping things to themselves...even if only for short periods of time.

They had found a cave. Only ten or so meters deep and plainly obvious to anyone approaching. But it was shelter. Shadow had insisted on staying Alraxian, meaning that the cold night was causing extreme problems for her. Akan had given her his jacket and tattered robe, but it wasn’t doing nearly as good as it would have with most other species. Of course, most other species didn’t have their body and brain shut down in below tropical temperatures. Though the morphsuit was still small, it was at least keeping her warm enough to not pass out. Despite all the problems, she showed no sign of discomfort. Physically, at least.

Besides, she was still annoyed with Akan. He was far too human for his own good. Thankfully, he had not insisted on going back to get the girl’s body anymore, but she could tell he was mentally tearing himself apart for it. The reason for this was beyond her comprehension. To Shadow, death occurred and one dealt with it accordingly. In Alraxian society, the birth of a child was a time of mourning, as that was another soul that would have to die. A death, then, was a happy occasion as the person joined with the Force. She had accepted that nearly every other species in the galaxy did not believe this way, but at least it rarely impaired their judgement as it had done with Akan. Ironically, Shadow was ignoring her own reaction when her good friend and partner Max was killed. Something like that would ruin her argument against Akan, so it was best to be ignored.

Akan was sitting back against the rocks, looking out into the dark night beyond the cave. He allowed the Force to calm him as best as possible, but it was not enough. Calm was, sadly, not everything. If it was, there would be nice, long moments in the galaxy where everything stopping going wrong. Closing his eyes, Akan tried to get the images of two deaths out of his mind. Yes, he’d lost many friends and killed many enemies, but these two were different. Both were avoidable, should not have happened, and did happen because of his own negligence.

Quietly, trying to get his mind off of things, he asked, “How are we going to get back?”

At that, Shadow shrugged, thinking about it a moment, “We’re not here to just sit around and do nothing with those Imperials. You and I could handle Sadrak on our own.”

“We could?” Akan raised an eyebrow, sounding genuinely surprised at that boast.

Shadow paused, then tried saying it another way, “I don’t like this place. The sooner we deal with Sadrak, the sooner we can get Loki back into shape and the sooner I can...”

When she trailed off into silence, Akan tried to latch onto any thoughts that would perhaps hint at what she had nearly said. He had found slight images, flashes really, and a few things he didn’t understand, but nothing helpful. Then there was only one way to try. He asked, “Sooner you can what?”

Biting her lower lip, Shadow looked off into nothing. He deserved to know...he was tied to her now. But how to explain anymore? It wasn’t anything she was sure of...sighing, she showed a sign of confusion that was strange on her face, “I...am not the real Marix BlueIce. You know that already. I have all of her memories up to her leaving Alrax Prime, but then there’s a blank. Where it ends is when I met Max on Nar Shadaa. I...” frantically, she searched for words, “I know a little of it...the Empire used me. I was an assassin for them, not all that different from the real Marix was on Prime. I don’t know why I stopped, I don’t even remember why I was doing it. Voort said he was there...he knew the real Marix. On Coruscant. I think she’s still alive.”

Akan pondered this a short moment, then said, “We already saw Sadrak’s facility, though.”

“Voort said it was Isard who was first in charge,” Shadow pointed out in her usual deadpan voice, “There’s so much on that planet. The lower levels of even the main city district have never really been mapped out. I just...know something’s down there. I have to find her. I don’t know why...I just need to.”

There was silence for a few minutes as neither of them really knew what to say. Akan eventually managed a nod, understand her desire to find out more but not able to comprehend the details. Perhaps that was how it was for Shadow. No wonder it was such a driving need to know. A strange, almost out of place thought appeared in his mind. It wasn’t right for his current mood, but wouldn’t go away.

Easily noticing it, Shadow’s mood changed and she grinned, “You’re right.”

“What?” Akan hadn’t realized she was paying attention to that thought, and looked sheepish suddenly.

Shadow’s grin grew, “You’re right.”

“I’m exhausted,” he attempted a feeble lie.

“Oh, come on,” she said, getting up and tossing him the robe, “It’d be fun.”

“Everything’s fun to you,” mumbled Akan under his breath, though he was pulling the robe on anyway.

The grin became that usual dangerous one and she couldn’t help a nod, “So you going to keep avoiding it or are you ready to get moving?”

Finally, Akan allowed himself a grin as he got to his feet, “Fine. You win. But we don’t even know which direction to go.”

“That’s the fun of it,” Shadow pointed out, idly walking over to the edge of the cave and peering out, “Its been a while since I’ve had a good hunt.”

Akan laughed and stepped over next to her, stretching some and looking at the moon that was still high up above them, “I’ll remember that hunt to an Alraxian means run around blindly.”

Turning, Shadow cuffed him in the shoulder not too gently, “Bah!”

And then, they started out across the plateau. Walking quietly and quickly, the two of them kept eyes and ears alert enough that between the two of them nothing would get close without one of them knowing. Shadow would be first, of course, as Alraxians were just had better senses that humans did. This did not bother Akan, simply giving him a challenge to find things before she did. It took only a few minutes before this developed into a mean spirited game between the two of them, of which neither of them were doing all that well(even though Shadow would never admit to losing).

However, this left both of them too distracted to notice a threat from within. Both of them could feel the force that seemed to hover around them, following and prying, but neither gave it any notice. Simply thinking that it was the other’s thoughts attempting to cheat by using the link.