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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1971704" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 131: Sneaking and ShootingShadow stood in the turbolift, trying to ignore the smells and focus on the Voorts. Not their smell, but their feel. The soft feeling that everyone gave off in the Force was distinguishable with a little practice, and familiarity also helped. They were close. Alive...conscious...angry? No, just one of them. Titus probably. No...wait that was Jen. Titus was radiating calm. Not even a dangerous calm. It was the kind of calm that one had when they were sure things would work out without too much trouble. Part of the optimism was probably because he had undoubtedly felt her and Akan aboard the ship. Jen felt distracted. Angry at being pushed around and locked up. Angry at the guards who pushed the two of them around. Angry at...Hansen? That one didn’t make too much sense. And that wasn’t even anger as much as...as...as something Shadow didn’t understand. It was enough like anger that she could call it that, but that was only because Shadow had no concept, or even basic understanding for that matter, of jealousy.     The turbolift stopped. Shadow opened her eyes just as the door slid open. The hallway in front of her went forward for about thirty meters before breaking off into a T-shaped junction. There were doors evenly spaced along both sides of the ten meter wide corridor. Well, eight meter wide. The smells washed over her, and she locked onto a small group of them. The Voorts’ and the guards’ that had accompanied them. Right. Follow that. Akan’s mind was racing and Shadow had a feeling he wasn’t going to be able to keep up the high level of energy for too much longer. He was going to reach a point where there wasn’t even enough energy to morph any wounds. And he wasn’t exactly one to think of those kind of things ahead of time. She needed to get the Voorts and get back to that hangar as soon as possible before Akan got himself...them, killed.    Forcing the wandering thoughts away, Shadow started forward. She took firm steps, well placed and very deliberate, yet silent and cautious. Staying near the center of the hallway to have the best vantage point down both corridors(as she wasn’t yet sure which way the scent would lead), Shadow’s ears twitched. A noise. Ahead and to the left. Left...she stepped to the left, next to the wall enough to hide herself from view but still continuing forward. Step. Step. Step. Loud, booted footsteps. Shadow reached the corner, and waited....listening. The plodding steps continued, growing louder in the echoing silence of the corridor. Louder...louder...her tail twitched in annoyance at the waiting. Those footsteps should have brought their owner to the corner by now. Did the corridor echo sounds oddly? Had to...wait...smell was growing. Disgusting smell. Closer. Closer...along with the louder footsteps. Loud enough so that they were no longer echoing to reach her ears...    Without another thought, Shadow reacted. Spinning around the corner on one foot, elbow outstretched at face level of most average humanoids. This meant that, because of Shadow’s relatively small stature(she hated the word ‘short’), her arm was up a good distance above her own head. While it looked odd, she’d learned how to make it work. Years of having a small stature taught one things like that. It also taught her how to hold her footing when the elbow connected with a nose with a loud crack. The sudden cry of both pain and surprise was cut off by the man losing the air from his lungs from the hard fall onto his back. A second cry which nearly occurred was cut off when Shadow’s foot connected with his bloodied face. There was another crack, and then nothing. Shadow stood back a moment to get the smell again, ignoring that she was leaving a body with a bloodied and heavily dented face right in the open. There wasn’t time to hide it. There. The smell.    Not even looking down, Shadow walked right over the man’s body and down the new corridor. This one went on for a much longer distance, and had less doors lining it. Sniffing the air a moment to confirm, Shadow continued forward. It took only twenty paces before the scent was suddenly gone. Which meant that it went into that door...to the left? She backed up. Yes. There. But did it open straight to a cell or another corridor or just another room? There was only one way to find out. She hit the small panel to the side. There was a click, but the door didn’t open. Shadow pressed it again. Another, slightly harder click, but again...nothing. Growling, she bent down a little to examine the panel. Locked doors were very annoying. With another, more annoyed growl, she ripped the panel off and tossed it off down the corridor. There was a loud, echoing clank, but Shadow didn’t care.    Instead, her focus was on the myriad of wires and circuits within. Spending two years among smugglers and not learning a thing or two was unheard of. And what was an assassin who couldn’t hot-wire doors? It would take time, though. And time, she didn’t have. Akan’s mind was already starting to show his tiring through the link. So, as quickly as she could, Shadow worked with the wires and did everything she could to get the damned door open. It took two minutes. Two very long, very annoying minutes. The entire time, she could feel something else. A silent alarm of sorts had gone off. The only way Shadow knew this was through that overpowering feeling of being watched. Tracked. Hunted. They were coming. And then, the door opened.    It opened, and Shadow had a brief moment where she could see two security personnel . The brief moment ended when one of them fired a blaster rifle at her. But the usual red bolt didn’t shoot out at her. Instead, rings of a sickening blue encircled her and caused her body and mind to go all fuzzy for a moment. Stun blast. It soon became apparent to the two men that the shot hadn’t taken Shadow down. And after a few seconds, the fuzziness faded to the stark reality of the butt of a blaster rifle slamming into her stomach.    Shadow grunted involuntarily, but her body also had another natural reaction. She ignored the pain from the strike, arms shooting up to grab the rifle. To the man’s surprise, she didn’t yank it out of his hands. Instead, Shadow forced it back against him, throwing the man to the ground and giving her room to get inside. She plowed through the doorway, stepping on the downed man’s chest and springing off to dive into the second man. There was a short yell of surprise from him before Shadow landed, her arms wrapping around his neck and forcing him onto his back. This didn’t completely work, as a heavy desk was in the way. Before Shadow could even extend her claws into the man’s neck, there was a violently loud snapping noise from his spine as she forced him down into the desk at a very bad angle. Seeing that fate had stepped in where skill was acting too slowly, Shadow spun around and moved to the first man. He was just getting to his feet, blaster rifle raising to fire off wildly. She delivered a strong kick to the weapon, sending it against the nearby wall. Her entire body continued a spin, and Shadow switched her feet on the ground, the other coming up and delivering a second kick. This one caught the man across the side of the face, the force of the kick driving him into the wall with the blaster rifle. He hit hard, then slumped down without moving again.    And then, Shadow finally looked around the room. It was small, just barely over ten by ten meters. There was that desk, and then two doors. The Voorts were close. A guard room for cells. Cells would be locked. Locks meant more time. Shadow cursed and kicked one of the doors hard. Very faintly, from the other side, she heard a yelp of surprise. That was Jen’s voice, no mistake. Good. Start here. She quickly went down to the panel, ripped it off and got to work. For some stupid reason, it wasn’t as complicated as the first she’d hot wired, and only took a half minute to get open. It slid open to reveal Jen, looking surprised, but at the same time relieved. Jen opened her mouth to thank Shadow, but the woman’s expression altered and she pointed behind Shadow, “Duck!”    Shadow did. But her instincts told her to catch the inevitable punch or similar strike. That was stupid, which she would later admit to herself. The sound of a blaster pistol rang out too late for her to pull the arm back down, and a sharp burning sensation arched through her wrist. She let out a growl and managed to remorph it quickly, turning to maul whoever had been stupid enough to actually shoot her. There was a flash of movement past her as she spun to react, and just as Shadow barely stopped herself when more blaster shots rang out. These came from behind her. At least ten shots came from that direction, pelting the three New Republic fleet officers who’d charged in with blaster fire. They dropped, and Shadow turned with a shocked look to see Jen holding the blaster rifle that had attempted to stun Shadow earlier. Jen smiled, shrugged, and said innocently, “You didn’t think I knew how to use the Force in drastic situations?”    “Consider that a pass for part one of your field training,” Shadow commented, the shocked look fading into a grin. She then motioned for Jen to cover her and went to getting Titus out of his cell. Or at least, what she assumed was his cell. It felt like he was in there, though as usual he was annoyingly silent. Behind her, Shadow heard more blaster shots and heavy breathing from Jen. Just before she got the cell door open, the real alarm sounded. It echoed through the ship in the usual annoyingly high pitched tones of most alarms. Shadow cringed at how the sound grated her ears and nearly crossed two wires that would have just locked the door even more so. Thankfully, she realized this and got the right wires together. A moment later, the door opened to show Titus casually leaning against the wall, tapping his feet.    “Took you long enough,” he commented with a smile.    Shadow forced her grin away and snapped, “At least we’re here, Imperial.”    “Late it late, animal,” they both grinned at that. Then, Titus stepped out and got his own blaster rifle. He reached over Jen a moment to assist her in firing at a large group of troops that was amassing at the T-junction where Shadow had left the first body. There was a break in the fire, and he kissed Jen’s cheek with a grin, “You win the bet.”    “What was this bet?” Shadow asked, fining her own blaster from the bodies and waiting for the two Voorts to find them an opening. This wasn’t her area of expertise anymore. Sending blaster fire back and forth in a near stalemate was not what most assassins attempted to do.    Jen managed a moment where she could grin to Shadow, speaking even as she continued firing around the corner, “He said it would be Akan.”    Before Shadow could comment on that, Titus knelt down next to one of the bodies and scoured the man’s belt. Obviously finding what he wanted, the former Imperial got back to his feet, hand holding a circular object. Then, after a quick glance around the corner, he tossed the item. They all pulled back into the room and just before the frag grenade exploded, Titus grinned, “No, I said Akan would be the idiot to charge into this ship instead of finding a better way to do this.”    “Then you’re right” Shadow said, “I’ll tell you all about our rough landing once we’re out of this place.”    Any response from the Voorts was cut off by the deafening explosion. * * * *Akan knelt behind the A-Wing that they had toppled over in the ‘rough’ landing. In his left hand, his blue green lightsaber glowed and hummed, and in his right, his small blaster pistol was giving off a lot of heat. His Alraxian body didn’t actually mind it that much, but that didn’t mean it was good for the gun. He was pinned in an okay position. Though he couldn’t see the turbolifts, Akan was still right next to his X-Wing and could dive in when the time came. When. Not if. Though when had better be soon, because while it had been no trouble to scare off the techs, the fleet troopers aboard the ship were really a different breed of gunners. He was lucky they hadn’t yet attempted to surround him, but that was only because he wasn’t in the center of the hangar, and could fire constantly on any idiot that attempted to get next to him.     The A-Wing being on its side, Akan was kneeling just by the ship’s damaged cockpit. Though he couldn’t stand and shoot over, he could step to the side some and fire through that small slit in the ship’s nose. While he’d never understood the design purpose for that slit, Akan found himself loving it more than ever. The few times he’d had to step out into the open(only to take out the intelligent group who’d attempted to set up a larger E-Web cannon), Akan had used the lightsaber simply for an intimidation factor. Just seeing the blade was enough to worry most. But that was wearing off, and he was starting to wonder why he even kept the thing out.    [On our way.] Shadow’s ‘voice’ cut into Akan’s thoughts through the link, forcing him to realize that there was a fundamental problem with this crazy plan. All crazy plans had them, as they were all thought up in the adrenaline rush of the moment. And now the others were coming back. Akan took a deep breath. Looking up, he saw a small series of piping. He reached out, keeping his focus both on the world around him and the Force. An invisible hand gripped the pipes tightly, and it took a hard ‘yank’ through the Force to get them free. The blaster fire aimed at the A-Wing stopped as everyone saw those three pipes hanging up there without anything holding them up. A moment later, Akan threw them. He didn’t see where they fell, and didn’t even care.    All he wanted was to hear that loud clang when they hit something. From the sound of it, they only hit the deck, but it was a moment of surprise that he could use. Akan took four quick steps out from behind the cover of the A-Wing, his eyes darting around and not even attempting defense for the few seconds. There. Just above the turbolifts...a small, glasteel plate. The hangar’s control room. Without really thinking, Akan holstered his blaster and started running towards the turbolift. A group of four fleet troopers appeared from behind a set of ladders and scaffolding used by the techs to get onto larger ships. They had blaster rifles out and were taking aim to fire. Taking aim only meant placing their muzzles to fire just ahead of Akan. He knew that, and extended his right hand out towards them, sending a heavy, invisible wall at them. The Force slammed into the four in much the same way that the X-Wing had hit the A-Wing, and there were four yelps followed by four thuds.    Akan switched the lightsaber back into his right hand and ran around the half constructed X-Wing that was sitting in front of the Alderaan. He ducked under a wing, found himself face to face with a cowering tech, and just ignored him. Running past the nose cone of the starfighter, Akan realized this was a bad idea. This was first apparent in the sudden push of the Force for him to turn around. The second proof of it being a bad idea was the blaster shot. Thankfully, Akan listened to the Force and spun around with his lightsaber up in a defensive position. It caught the blaster bolt just a moment before passing the blade, batting it off to the far wall. Akan’s instincts took control of his body, and before he could stop himself he was charging forward to the now terrified technician.    One lightsaber swing took the tech’s arm off at the elbow, getting a loud scream from him before a second horizontal strike ended any pain that had been left. Akan was already pivoting around and heading towards his goal by the time his mind caught up with his actions. But there wasn’t time to think. There was barely time to do what he needed to do. Looking up, he saw the glasteel panel. Akan took a short glance to the lightsaber before hurling it up at the panel. It hit blade first, shattering the strong material. He didn’t take time to see how much it was shattered. By the time his eyes saw the small opening, Akan had already leapt off of the X-Wing’s nose cone, using the Force to propel his body up much higher than was ever possible even to a normal Alraxian. Quickly, Akan balled up to get through the small opening. Akan landed on his head, rolling and trying to ignore the pain from the scratches along his arms that the glasteel had caused. That pain was suddenly blanked out by another. The roll slammed him into a console, and stopped any kind of elegant form of getting to his feet.    After a whimper, Akan opened his eyes to see...no one. Empty! Ha! No one had seen his idiotic screw up. Quickly, he got to his feet and looked around at the many consoles. Now...to find the tractor beam controls. It took just a few moments, and he had it deactivated. Or at least, he hoped so. Even though the bridge could control the tractor beams, at least disabling it from here would I’ve a short amount of time. Hopefully enough. Akan started to head back to the cracked panel, but suddenly remembered his lightsaber. Looking around, he ran over and grabbed it off of the ground. He then reactivated it and made sure to cut a large hole to get out of, not thinking that the fall was probably going to hurt his legs much more than that glasteel could.</blockquote>

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