NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3885425" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 539: Levels of LightThe lighting in the small corridor was barely lighting at all. In fact, had she a terrible sense of humour, Marix would have called it more of a darking than lighting. It was, however, to her advantage. In such lighting, it was fairly easy for a not-so-tall human woman, dressed in black and grey clothes and with raven coloured hair, herself, to press against a slight indentation in the wall and be very difficult to see.    The Twi’lek disguise had been useful enough, but it wouldn’t take Torno and his guards long to figure out that ‘she’ was gone. And then they’d connect the dots. Well, that wasn’t true. What they’d do was go after that Twi’lek solely due to the fact that she was missing and they would target anyone that wasn’t around, especially when they started to realize she hadn’t been around for that long in the first place.    So now Marix was human again, pressed against the wall in the darkness, watching guards pass by here and there without so much as a glance to where she was. Humans weren’t exactly the most common species among Torno’s lackeys, and they definitely wouldn’t recognize her, which would be dangerous, but right now, being blue skinned and having two long head-tails wasn’t going to do Marix any good at all. It also helped that, next to her normal, Alraxian body, she was most used to the human one. Sure it was weaker, felt odd, and had a strange center of gravity, but Marix had spent enough time in it over the years to get past those problems and not fall on her face when she tried to walk.    She had made it to Torno’s makeshift cell block with little difficulty, and could even see a couple of the doors that were labeled with small datacards crudely stuck on them. The words were in Huttese, unsurprisingly, but Marix could read enough to figure out which door was which. The one she was looking for, 21A, should have been on the same wall she was currently up against. That was only if there was any reason to the numbering scheme of the doors she could see, but Marix couldn’t really see enough at the moment. One true downside to a human body was weak eyesight.    It also didn’t help that there was really no break in the guards, and killing more of them wasn’t going to do her any good.  If she took anyone else down, for the moment at least, there would have to be a place to hide the body safely. Currently, Marix didn’t see any place suitable for that. Stepping out of her very small hiding spot for long enough to find the door she needed wasn’t really an option, which meant Marix had to use the only sense she had that was just as strong in any body she happened to currently occupy.    Eyes staying very open to make sure she wasn’t noticed, and a great deal of focus on keeping her breaths slow, soft, and very quiet, Marix reached out with the Force. In a moment, the darkness of the corridor didn’t matter, because she could feel everything. Four guards from the directly she’d come in from, which had been interesting getting around, and another two at the opposite end. There was also at least three patrolling the area, though she could see two of them with her own eyes easily enough. Across the corridor from her, she could feel three other beings, though she was sure there were at least seven doors that led to ‘cells’. On her side of the wall, this was confirmed, as she could feel...six?    Now, that was right. Two to her left, four to the right, and then an empty cell about five meters to her right. If the cells were numbered correctly, or at least had some semblance of organization beyond random numbering, then that so-called empty cell was the one she wanted. This, however, also relied on the fact that there were only seven doors between her and the end of the corridor.    Well...that, and luck.    She needed a break in the guards, though. They were patrolling rather regularly, and she needed a break in that...    Marix shifted her focus back towards the four guards at the ‘entrance’ to the block of cells. Despite being a good distance from her, she could see it well enough. A pig-like Gamorrean, a Trandoshan, and two Nikto were there. Focusing on one of the Nikto, and knowing that both the Trandoshan and Gamorrean were the kind to lash out unnecessarily, she did some that was, thanks to many years of practice and training, quite simple.    With the Force, she shoved the Nikto as hard as she could into the wall nearest to him.    She didn’t need the Force to tell her what happened next. In fact, she didn’t need her eyes, either. There was a series of loud, surprised cries that echoed down the corridor, and that was enough to get the attention of the patrolling guards, which soon ran right past her, one after another, to the continued shouts and even a few blaster shots.    Immediately, Marix turned to her right and moved swiftly, knowing that there was a chance the two guards at the opposite end would come running right into her. But she couldn’t wait forever, and there was just as much a chance they wouldn’t go anywhere. That same trick wouldn’t work twice, so she just had to move and deal with whatever came at her, literally.    Her eyes then did their job, picking up “21A” crudely scrawled on a datacard barely stuck to a door exactly where she had hoped it would be. For once, things were managing to work out just as they needed to. Of course, now came the problem of opening the door. Marix didn’t even bother to just try opening it, knowing there was no way it would be that easy.    There was a small keypad on the door, obviously the lock that she needed to deal with as fast as she could. This, she could handle when it came to slicing...but Marix doubted she had enough time. Once again, she removed the vibroblade from its sheath on her left shoulder and decided to push her luck even more. Marix did not, however, think of it as pushing her luck. Rather, it was testing her knowledge.    If she was right, and this corridor wasn’t originally designed to be a cell block, then there was the chance the doors weren’t equipped with alarms. It was a long shot, but she didn’t have time to deal with anything else and everything about the contents of the cell screamed to be extremely important.    Marix could deal with whatever problems came up if there was an alarm.    As quietly as was possible, Marix drove her blade right into the keypad. The sound of the shattered metal and the crackling of the destroyed electronics was muffled slightly thanks to her very close proximity to the door...and no alarm sounded.    The next problem that she was confronted with was the fact that the keypad was also the door’s opening mechanism. But Marix had expected this, and decided to continue her low tech solutions.    With all the strength she could manage, Marix kicked the door hard. It was the kind of metal that didn’t so much echo as break one’s toes, and so Marix cursed under her breath as she quickly remorphed the wound.    The door, however, opened.    Inside the small, closet-sized room was just what she was looking for: the scarred and tattooed body of a Yuuzhan Vong. He was glaring daggers at her through two deep set eyes on a mutilated face, pointed teeth forming into a snarl, and though he struggled to get up, Marix could see shackles were holding him down quite well.    And then, just a few seconds late, an alarm began to scream.</blockquote>

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