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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2592488" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 280: Unwanted GuestsTo say that the New Republic Security Soldiers were heavily armed was almost an understatement. There were eight of them. Four carrying standard issue blaster rifles, with two smaller hold out pistols on their belts. The other four had weapons that seemed more suited to taking down armored combat speeders than two fugitives. And they were aiming the damned things, too. But someone, despite Jyren staring at each of those huge blaster cannons and the fact that the troopers did not seem to be at all phased by the two near 3 meter tall Alraxians.    When all of the troops had spread out and gotten clear shots, the one in the center(also holding one of the blaster cannons), spoke up in a stern voice that went disturbingly well with the green uniform and face-masking helmet he wore, “Hands out where we can see them. If you move, we will shoot.”    Not that it would kill them, Jyren idly thought to himself...though it probably would hurt a hell of a lot. And if they aimed just right, it would kill them. But really, who aimed for the head?    Shadow allowed herself a very slow look over to Jyren. [They are.]    [Sometimes I wish you would ignore my rambling thoughts.] Jyren grumbled through the link, suddenly realizing that all of the weapons were, in fact, tilted up just at the right(or wrong) angle.    Of course, they both did as they were told. But as they did, Shadow very calmly asked, “What, exactly, are we being charged with?”    Behind the orange visor of the helmet, Jyren knew the man blinked. He could feel it in the pause in the air. Just the way Shadow said it was perfect. And, picking up a second after, the soldier answered quickly, “Working with the Empire to overthrow the Republic, murdering Coruscanti civilians, attacking and killing New Republic soldiers.”    Jyren blinked this time. He nearly opened his mouth to speak, but Shadow shut him up with a quick comment. [Yes, I agree. One of those isn’t true. Just shut up and let me deal with this.]    Just as that was finishing in Jyren’s mind, Shadow said smoothly, “You have evidence to prove this?”    Again, the trooper missed a beat...but this time it was longer. He even opened his mouth to stutter before finally getting out, “Y-yes. Now come with us. Again, any resistance and we will be forced to fire on you.”    Taking his cues from Shadow, Jyren held his ground. She did take a small step forward, almost pretending to follow along, before saying in the same calm, soft(and Force-laced) voice, “But you haven’t searched the ship to find out if we are working alone.”    This time, the trooper looked to the man at his left. They seemed to have a silent conversation, then the leader nodded to him and three of them headed off down the corridor. Three others then headed the opposite direction, towards the cockpit. It left just the leader and one of the troopers with a blaster rifle. The two simply continued to hold their weapons up and aimed at the two Alraxians, and Shadow waited patiently until the other two groups had disappeared down the corridors. Hopefully, Loki would do his job and cause them chaos in the locking and random opening of doors.    “Hasn’t it been a long day?” Shadow said in the same voice, but this time pushing the Force more and more into the words, “Aren’t you getting tired?”    The trooper with the blaster rifle actually yawned. As that happened, the leader took one hand off the large blaster cannon to rub his chin and nod slowly. Shadow then allowed the smallest of smiles onto her face, “You’ve earned a good sleep for all the work you do. Go back to your ship and get some sleep.”    There was no delay. In another few seconds, the two security troopers were back in their ship. Jyren looked to Shadow and grinned. She shrugged, “Six more.”    As they turned and headed first towards the cockpit, Jyren decided it was worth asking, “How do you plan to convince them we didn’t kill their officer?”    This time Shadow grinned, “The same way I convinced the guy he was tired.”    “Ah...” Jyren trailed off, then added quietly, “Hopefully you’ll be able to keep that up. It isn’t easy.”    [Then let me concentrate.] Shadow said mentally, as they could now see the three troopers who were in front of the door to the cockpit and inspecting it very carefully. She stopped a good five meters behind them, and then spoke in a careful way so as not to cause any of them to jump and turn around firing, “Having trouble with the door?”    They did jump, but thankfully they didn’t start shooting. One of them took a small step back while another decided to be the spokesman and asked, while raising his rifle, “What are you doing?!”    Shadow had to take a moment to draw the Force to her to keep her voice infused with it. The smallest slip up could result in simply amplifying their current problems, “Your officer was shot by one of the others! We took them into their ship, but don’t know where the medical equipment is! He needs your help! He said to forget about us!”    The usual pause was there, but the three then suddenly charged right for Shadow and Jyren. Both Alraxians quickly moved out of the way, and the soldiers ran right past. Jyren grinned again, “Forget about us, eh?”    “I told you to trust me,” she smiled proudly and then turned to look up at Loki’s ceiling. [Loki, reshape the corridors so that the remaining troopers have to head back to their ship. Do what you have to to spook them.]    [I was waiting for you to let me have some fun!] the ship laughed. Not a moment later, Shadow nodded to the cockpit, “Come on, now its time for you to help out.”    Sadly, they didn’t get to find out what exactly Loki did to the poor New Republic troopers. They both got to the cockpit and divided up the necessary work. Jyren worked out exactly where the X-Wings were patrolling and got a course ready for them to get out of Coruscant’s gravity well, and Shadow quickly plotted a hyperspace jump.    “Where to?” Jyren asked, halfway through his job.    “Nowhere right now,” Shadow said quickly, “We can’t be far off the trail, but we’ll have to skip this part of the adventure.”    “No argument from me.”    [Airlock is sealed.] Loki chimed in.    “Hang on, Loki,” both Shadow and Jyren said at the exact same time. Everything had to work together just right. It all depended on the pilot of that transport. If he assumed that everyone was onboard then maybe...just maybe, he’d leave when the airlock was sealed. There was a soft blue glow.    Sublight engines.    Jyren let out a sigh of relief as he watched the shuttle and four X-Wings start back for the planet at a slow speed. Wait...wait...wait...    “Go, Loki!” Shadow yelled, knowing that sitting there too long would be a bad idea. In a flash, Loki’s engines powered up and he shot around in a U-shaped course straight out of the system. Jyren could see on the sensors readouts that the X-Wings were peeling off to pursue, but Loki was too fast when he had the jump like that. And, in a matter of moments, they were safely away in hyperspace.    Both of them smiled as they sat back into their respective seats in the cockpit. There were so many questions on what to do now...and the fact that the New Republic was probably even less pleased with them. But that part, at least, could wait until later, they’d just need to keep a lower profile and be more careful.    Finally, Jyren broke the silence, “You’re good.”    Shadow laughed and mock bowed in her chair, “Thank you. I was wondering how long it was going to take you to admit that.”</blockquote>

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