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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3562044" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 465: Both SidesFour bright flashes of white dashed across the green blaze that had crossed Marix’s vision, accompanied by a sound that was quite unique...but she knew it well. In the blink of an eye, four of Gorla’s lackeys were dropped by their own blaster bolts. In that same blink of an eye, the two targets of the remaining blaster bolts had moved, and the rest of the shots hit the wall just to Gorla’s side, getting a surprised noise from the Hutt.Venda had ducked and gone left, her green lightsaber trailing behind her as she charged straight for the nearest pair of legs which looked to belong to a Trandoshan and a Rodian. A clean sweep of her lightsaber removed their legs from the rest of their bodies, and she was up again to deflect another pair of blaster bolts...though this time just away from her, without any time to actually aim them back at their origins. She was face to face with a myriad of very angry looking beings, all of whom were holding some kind of weapon. While she didn’t really want to kill any of them, this group didn’t look to feel the same.    The Force screamed at her and she swung her lightsaber towards the warning, taking off a green hand that was coming at her face with a vibroblade. The owned of the hand screamed and fell back, and Venda had no time to identify its species before the Force was yelling at her again. The chaos was almost too much for her, but she sidestepped the blaster shot to her face, sending her right into a large, wrinkled Weequay.  At this point, her danger sense wasn’t letting up and Venda wasn’t able to discern what, exactly, was going on...so she simply let the Force guide her actions.    She stepped left, away from a jab from the Weequay’s vibrodagger that would have easily dug into her stomach. Her left hand let go of the lightsaber and she sent an elbow into the Weequay’s face, while her right hand sent the lightsaber into a long, sweeping arc that cut across three other figures that she had no time to identify. An elbow was not enough to stop the Weequay, and had only give her enough time to take another step away from him. Already, he was diving in at her, and Venda quickly responded by calling on the Force.    An invisible hand took hold of the unsuspecting alien and flung him away, into a larger group and putting a good ten people out of the fight for at least a short time. When her eyes returned to her lightsaber and the rest of the attackers, Venda watched a grey blur shoot across her vision. Two Twi’leks were dropped, bleeding far more than should have been possible, before her eyes were able to catch up with the movement and identify Marix.    The Alraxian had quickly dispatched five of the larger creatures that were around them, finding that her new vibroblade, which was more a dagger in her hands, was quite a good weapon. Even with the sonic vibration turned off, she felt it was cheating and had thumbed off the power switch the second the weapon had entered her hand, Marix had no trouble cutting through the tough hides of the many Trandoshans that Gorla had in his employ. With the two Twi’leks down, both of which had been drawing blasters, Marix reversed the grip on the blade while ducking under a punch from another of the reptillian Trandoshan.    Being taller than the scaled alien, she had to duck a long way, but it was easy enough and Marix quickly whipped the vibroblade across its stomach and them back across his chest. There had been armour, but she was strong enough to cut straight through it without even worrying about the Force. Something touched her tail, which had been extended for balance, and Marix didn’t even turn to look at what the offending object had been before spinning around and kicking out the legs from under the approaching attacker.    With a heavy thud and a loud grunt, a pig-like Gamorrean fell onto its back. Marix was currently in a very focused mode. The threats needed to be completely eliminated as fast as possible before one of them got a lucky shot in. Because of this, she was immediately on the Gamorrean when he hit the stone floor, driving her blade into her neck to make sure he wouldn’t get up.    There wasn’t time to care about just knocking people unconscious. It needed to be fast. The small part of her mind that was able to think while the rest of her was on autopilot was glad that Venda wasn’t lecturing her on some Jedi ideal about not killing. Not that Jyren ever had, but he’d thought it a few times.    A loud thrumming sound went straight over her and Marix hesitated before getting to her feet again. She glanced to the side, seeing another Twi’lek drop, but this one with a long, red-orange burn streak across his chest. A lightsaber wound. This Jedi woman seemed to know how to fight, at least. Sometimes, Marix couldn’t help but wonder if Jedi knew how to do that through all the philosophy.    When she was up again, her ears caught a sound close by to her. Eyes darted to her left to see a metallic sheen moving towards her outstretched arm. A split second was all Marix had to decide on a reaction, and what she chose would, later, surprise even her. Instead of simply allowing the blade to cut into her arm, her arm remorphed. The sound of metal hitting metal echoed through the stone chamber and a shocked Rodian staggered back. He never knew what had happened, because before he was able to take a second step backwards, Marix’s vibroblade slashed across his upper chest.    Her arm returned to its normal flesh before anyone could have been the wiser. But as Marix turned to find another threat, she realized the attack had died. The only other standing being in the large chamber was Venda, holding her green lightsaber out in front of a group of about twelve humanoids of various species who were sprawled out across the ground. They looked like they wanted to find a way to attack the Jedi woman, but seemed to be realizing that they wouldn’t get far before losing a limb like many of their companions had.    Marix’s eyes scanned the ground. Limbs were more common than bodies. The former were all close to Venda, while the latter were from Marix’s path. So she was a Jedi after all. Maim before killing. It was quite a noble idea, but cutting off one arm, or hand, of an assailant usually just left them one armed, and angrier than before. Whether they were ambidextrous or not didn’t seem to matter, in Marix’s experience, as they’d find a way to attack one way or another. Oh well. Beyond the other groaning beings on the ground behind her, it seemed that Venda had the able-bodied ones under control.    Silvery-violet eyes turned on the stunned Hutt, “I have tried to be civil, Gorla. Apparently, that is not possible with you. So you have a choice now. You can tell me what I want to know or I can kill you and dig it out of your database.”    “You couldn’t break the encryption!” the Hutt bellowed at her, though there was something in his voice that made him sound very uneasy.    Marix took a simple step forward, standing in a way to let the vibroblade in her hand come into view. It was still a mess as she didn’t bother to clean it off at all. A subtle show that she was not playing anymore, “You are not in a position to make such assumptions. Perhaps I cannot break the encryption, if you even bother to have one in your little hole, but I can kill you and find someone to break it for me.”    The Hutt said nothing. His eyes remained just as wide as they had been since the fighting had stopped. That was signal enough to Marix.    She motioned to Gorla with the vibroblade, “What do you expect to gain by working with the Vong?”    Back to questioning, though this time she had a feeling she’d get more direct answers.    Of course, Gorla didn’t respond right away. So Marix took another step closer to him so that he was nearly within her reach and narrowed her eyes, “You would not sign a treaty with them if you did not have something to gain. You also would be on your so-called beautiful homeworld of Nal Hutta if you truly believed it. So you’re playing both sides, then. You do not trust the Vong, do you?”    Again, Gorla said nothing...but he didn’t need to. Marix could see his reaction. Hutts were not easy to read, but she’d had years of experience to know that she was practically taking the words out of Gorla’s head. Not that she was, Hutts were surprisingly difficult to read through the Force, but sometimes instincts were just as good, if not better, than the Force.    Even so, Marix moved within a meter of the oversized slug, “It is amazing that you have not learned that you cannot play both sides in a war. Staying neutral is one thing, but you want to gain something from both...which means that no matter who ends up victorious in this war, you lose,” she let that point hang in the air before reaching up with the blade again, putting it just against the Hutt’s leathery skin.    “Marix...” that was Venda, from behind her and obviously not liking where this was going.    Marix didn’t care.    Though her eyes couldn’t narrow anymore, her ears flattened slightly instead and Marix said through very sharp teeth, “If you do not tell me where the Peace Brigade is based, I will cut out your eye.”    “There...there is no base...” so the Hutt was listening, after all.    “Why are you working with them?”    Gorla’s eyes glanced to the blade that was a little too close, “Jedi...they...get in my business...Peace Brigade keeps them out...”    Now this was going somewhere.    “So the Peace Brigade aren’t just Vong sympathizers, then,” she said softly, but in a voice that could cut through a Star Destroyer, “You want the Jedi out of your business...ignoring the fact that this has obviously failed, why do you go to the Peace Brigade for that?”    Gorla just stared at her. Marix saw something in his eyes. They shifted just slightly, away from the blade. Movement.    Before the Force could even warn her of the attack, Marix was moving. She went up, jumping straight over the powerful tail that swung through where she had been. Of course Gorla wouldn’t give in that easily. Fine. This was over with.    Marix hit the ground and dug the vibroblade into the nearest piece of Hutt she could find. It was just above his eyes, and she immediately dragged the blade down and went through with an earlier threat. Gorla cried out in a massive roar that nearly shook the entire chamber, thrashing as he did. Not wanting to be hit by the tail, Marix moved out of the way as quickly as she could.    Venda was yelling something indistinct that was hard to hear through Gorla’s cries of pain, but Marix didn’t care. When she found what she was looking for, she hefted a blaster pistol, silently cursed the damned things, then unloaded what was left of the power pack into the Hutt.    He had died long before she had finished depleting the weapon’s power.    She dropped the blaster to the stone floor and turned to see a shocked Venda staring at her. Marix just looked past the blonde haired woman and to the group she was keeping at bay, “Where is the data center for this place?”    It was a Twi’lek that answered her, though his voice was shaky, he obviously didn’t want to see what else Marix was capable of, “Do...down the corridor...its...fourth room on the left...”    “Guards?”    He managed to look embarrassed, “I...was the guard...”    Good.    Marix picked up another blaster pistol as she walked over to the exit to the chamber, and as she passed Venda said simply, “I am leaving.”    She then left the room, not even waiting for Venda to answer. Marix had what she needed, and before she left she’d destroy all of the computers and databases that Gorla had. Any record he might have of where Alraxia was would be wiped out. And now she knew that there was more to the Peace Brigade than it had seemed at first. Perhaps this random trip around the galaxy hadn’t been such a childish adventure after all.((Sorry for the delay on the update...longer than usual and I ended up wanting to post something with it so it had to wait. So...attached is another of the cast images I've been working on plus a little something extra: The last thing Gorla and his lackeys saw.))[sblock]<img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Jyren/HoAKCast5colournames.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Jyren/HoAKCast6colournames.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/Jyren/MarixandVendalightsaber.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]</blockquote>

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