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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3380471" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 440: Rodian EncountersFor an assassin, quick thinking was a necessity. If one wasn’t able to make a fast decision, it meant a fast death instead. Because of this, Marix’s mind flew through her options. There was a Yuuzhan Vong probably at the base of the boarding ramp to the freighter she was in, and two dead Rodians along with her. That was it. The only thing she noted different was that the Rodian corpse with her, currently, did not have any strange, coral-like extrusions from its skin. What this meant, she didn’t know, but she could guess.    Quickly, she searched the Rodian’s body for anything out of the ordinary, both with her hands and through the Force. It was the Force that found something...or rather...nothing. An emptiness where she very well knew there should have been something because she was feeling nothing at all from close to the Rodian’s skull. Part of her was a bit worried about her next move, but the rest of her knew it might just be more important to keep inspecting rather than die at the hands of an army of Yuuzhan Vong.    With a grunt, as she was still human and not exactly the strongest one, either, she lifted up the Rodian’s frail body and leaned down. Carefully, she looked into the opening that was nearest the lack of feeling in the Force...the right ear. And, sure enough, there was something there. And it moved.    Marix jumped back slightly, expecting something to come flying at her. But when nothing did, she leaned in, more carefully this time, again. From what she could tell, there was a small...thing...in the Rodian’s ear. It was definitely still alive, and it definitely was not normally part of the Rodian ear. Not liking where this was going, but not seeing anywhere else to go with it, Marix carefully reached in with two gloved fingers.    She got a hold of a small, moving...thing...presumably the same thing she had seen, and gave it a small pull. There was no resistance like she had expected. Clearly, this was not like the coral she had seen on the face of the other Rodian...that was more a growth while this...was...    A little worm of some kind. Marix held the slightly moving thing up to her face and peered at it. Only her eyes and gloved-hands were telling her the thing was there. According to the Force, there was nothing at all in her hands.    There was another guttural yell that echoed up the ship and to her. There were definitely words attached to that, but Marix couldn’t even make them out this time. All she could tell was that it sounded angrier than before. Which meant she had to act faster than she was currently moving. Getting to her feet, Marix pocketed the small worm-thing and then quickly shed the topmost two layers of the clothes.    It only took another few moments, and where a human had been, a blue-skinned, female Rodian stood. Marix had only ever used this morph a few times, and always found it awkward...even compared to a human. She stretched slightly, getting used to the lighter limbs, then fell into stride and headed to the exit, looking as terrified as she could manage for this encounter.    When she rounded the corner to step down the boarding ramp, Marix nearly went straight into an amphistaff.    “Remaga corlat, migan yam?” the warrior in front of her bellowed the words before she even saw him.    For the moment, Marix’s two large eyes were squarely focused on the amphistaff, with its bladed edge just waiting to cut her into pieces. Slowly, her eyes shifted down the length of the weapon to the warrior...who was twice her size, both in height and bulk, with that usual crab-like armour and a heavily scarred and tattooed face. This one seemed to be missing most of his left ear in addition to all of the other scars.    In a nasally, annoying voice even to her Rodian ears, Marix spoke in Trade...Basic, “Wait!” her mind quickly ran through possible reasons for why the Vong had suddenly appeared, also trying to ignore the fact she had no idea what had been said to her, “Was fixing engine! Need repairs!”    The Vong warrior’s eyes narrowed, and Marix was currently unsure of whether he could understand her or not. In a swift motion, the warrior pulled back his amphistaff for a short moment. Marix knew what was coming next...she could see it in his muscles, the tension and the way he was preparing himself. Because she knew it was coming, it was even harder to play the part she needed to...but somehow, Marix did. When the warrior whipped around the other end of his amphistaff, she didn’t move, and simply allowed the blunt end to slam hard into the side of her face, sending her to the snow-covered deck with a grunt of pain and a thud.    “Kraasa ne,” the Vong growled under his breath before delivering a strong kick to her side, sending her completely to the ground and now, also, out of breath. Without another word, the warrior marched off back towards the line of others, only a few of which were looking her direction.    The pain was ignorable, despite the fact that she now had at least a few broken ribs. Had he done anything else, Marix would have been forced to retaliate, and that would likely have been bad. She knew she could have killed him...but...not with all of the others. But that had happened, and now she simply had to get back to Loki with whatever extra information she’d gathered on the datacard in addition to what the Rodian had told her...and what was also now stuffed into Jyren’s jacket pocket...    Marix got to her feet slowly, resisting the urge to remorph in the open like this, and then headed back into the ship. As she made her way back to where she’d left the other layers of clothes, Marix remorphed to the human body, glad for the fact that the clothes fit better like that anyway. The Rodian body was shorter and they were loose and...cold...Marix shuddered as she finally got back and began to add on the layers again, finally pulling the hood over her head again and getting the cloth around her face again.    After checking her pocket for the little worm-thing and finding it was, sadly, still there and still moving some, Marix gave one last look to the body before turning and heading back out. The plan was to leave the way she’d come in, and, hopefully, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Part of her wished she could get in closer to listen to whatever was going on in that gathering, but Marix knew that wasn’t possible. She was lucky to be alive right now.    So, after a careful glance down the ramp and then dropping her head down to look to the line of warriors, Marix focused on simply getting back to Loki as anything but an ice cube.</blockquote>

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