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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3495360" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 453: TrackingIt didn’t take long before Marix remembered why she hated Ryloth. The cities, being underground within caves, no matter how big, still gave her a very claustrophobic feeling. That was, in itself, a curiosity to her, as she never felt like that anywhere else. It was something about the way the buildings came out of the walls and just...enclosed the entire limited area that were the streets and other walkways. Marix had spent a good hour scouring the city’s lower sections where, as on most planets, the scum usually gathered. It wasn’t hard to listen in and find out information on ‘some Hutt down in the lowest levels of the caves’.    But Marix hadn’t left the tavern she’d gotten the information from yet. Something was bothering her. A feeling. Distant but...still close. Small, rather. It made her feel like something was doing its best to hide. Maybe not from her, but from something. The chance that it was hiding from her, though, meant that Marix was suddenly reviewing the area around her again.    She was sitting at a small, for an Alraxian, table towards the side wall in a tavern that wasn’t small, but at the same time managed to feel cramped and enclosed. That was probably due to the low ceiling. The lighting was also like most places that were shady and hidden away in the lower sections of cities...dark. It made Marix glad she had remained in her Alraxian body, as she could see just fine and was able to keep an eye on the mostly Twi’lek clientele. It would likely even be dark for the Twi’leks within, also making her glad that she’d not gone in that form...which was ruled out for other reasons, mostly the way that Twi’lek females were treated.     Among the Twi’leks, Marix spotted six humans, two Trandoshans, four armoured figured who’s gender and species were unable to be determined, save for the single Ubese. It was a much less diverse crowd than she was used to seeing in places like this, but that wasn’t surprising on Ryloth. Her mind was wandering, though, and so she quickly brought it back into focus on that odd feeling. She brought it into focus, or rather, tried to...but couldn’t. Not only was it small but it was hard to pinpoint, slippery. As if it was...    Marix’s eyes latched onto a moving figure immedaitely. It was one of the humans, a woman from the look of the figure, though she was facing the other way and leaving. She had blonde hair that was pulled back in a way that reminded Marix of Jen, which made her start to put names to who it might be. But still, Marix waited for the woman to leave the tavern before getting up and leaving...or rather, following.    When Marix exited the tavern she was back in the lower sections of the city. Above her, were walkways carved from rock and lined with durasteel and duracrete, while above them small speeder paths to traverse the city that, since it couldn’t build up, was built outwards. She was down on the ground level, or rather, the lowest level, which was well below the ground and deep within the cave systems that netted Ryloth’s interior. Being taller than most Twi’leks, Marix had no trouble looking over their heads to spot the moving, blonde haired figure that she’d decided to follow. The feeling off oddness through the Force was definitely moving with her...    Calmly, and not walking at a fast pace at all, Marix started after the figure, who didn’t seem to have noticed she was being followed. Nevertheless, Marix did what she always did in situations where she was tailing someone...she drew her presence in the Force within as much as she could, and let her other senses pick up the slack. Currently, it was her eyes and ears doing the work. She did her best to filter out the noises of the bustling city to hear exactly what she needed to, while her eyes kept on her target. Sadly, the Alraxian sense of smell was strong, but not nearly good enough to track with it...at least, not in an environment as enclosed as this city was.    After five minutes, Marix’s target ducked between a pair of larger, more crudely crafted buildings. These, like most near this bottom level of the city, looked to be more rock than synthetic materials...and were more carved than built.  Obviously, it wasn’t the rich that lived down here. Marix reached the tight alley between the buildings and looked down it to see no sign of the human. She did see, however, a small access hatch against the rock wall at the opposite end. That made things obvious enough, at least.    Keeping up the air that she owned the place, Marix casually walked over and knelt in front of the hatch. It was Twi’lek sized, and would be a tight fit. The panel next to it had a small key pad written in the native language, Ryl, and a series of five unlit panels that looked to be different security code levels. With none being lit, Marix assumed that the hatch wasn’t locked.    She hit a small button at the bottom of the panel that didn’t have any symbols on it, and the hatch hissed open to reveal a ladder that led down into darkness. The lower tunnels. Apparently, they connected most of the cities on the planet and were used, officially, for safe transport during heat storms on the surface. Of course, they got more use from the smugglers and other illegal merchants that pocketed the planet. It was going to be a squeeze, too, but Marix figured she could make it fine. Mostly.    After a careful look down, seeing nothing, she turned and grabbed the ladder to start the long climb down. Once she was in, she found an interior panel exactly the same as the one outside and hit the same switch.    The hatch hissed closed, and she was consumed by darkness. To her annoyance, Marix’s eyes did not adjust to the lack of light...which meant there was no light at all. She couldn’t see a thing. But...    Twisting her head, Marix looked in the direction she assumed was down. There was a faint hint of light down there. Good. Why they didn’t light the access tube, though...    Marix put the annoyances aside and climbed down as quickly and quietly as she could. She’d have simply jumped, and would have been fine, except for the noise it would have made. It was hard to tell how close she was to her target, and any clues to a pursuer was always a bad idea. Patience was more important...and Marix had a great deal of patience. Most of the time. When she wanted to.    When she reached the bottom, Marix turned to see the large, open tubes that would, on most worlds, be sewers. Thankfully, though, there was no gunk and sewage in the tubes. Instead, there were lights that lined the bottom and top of the tubes and showed that they went in both directions. Now came the hard part...in the dim light, she couldn’t see too far either way, and couldn’t tell where the human had gone. At least she was probably getting closer to the Hutt along with tracking this odd feeling instead of getting detoured.     Her ears suddenly picked up on a sound of movement behind her, seconds before the Force alerted her to an attack.    Marix spun around at the same time she heard a very familiar snap-hiss. Her claws extended at the same moment of the sound, and she stopped herself when she saw who the person was holding the green lightsaber and standing behind her...and had stopped the blade in mid-swing.    “You!” the Jedi Knight, Venda, exclaimed in surprise.    Lucky for the Jedi, Marix had similar restraint and didn’t use the opening to tear out the blonde-woman’s insides, “I thought it was you.”    The Jedi lowered her lightsaber, but didn’t deactivate it and instead gave Marix a curious look, “You were the one following me?”    Marix also assumed a more casual stance, though her claws did not retract, “You were hiding from me. Why?”    “I thought it was one of the Hutt’s people...”    “Chuba!” a thick, very angry voice echoed down the corridor, “Kee hasa do punyoo!”    Both Marix and Venda spun to see a group of six...two Twi’leks and four Trandoshans, pointed very large blaster rifles at them. Marix shifted a glance towards the Jedi woman, “I think they were following you.”</blockquote>

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