Private A Time to Hunt

[Adelle Bastiel]

Denon, Lower levels
Tags: Aiden Porte

The service entrance he said. It made sense. Cover, noise, a way out of the immediate area. It brought them closer to the bar, its staff, and their clientele—who were more than likely cultists, but with time being of the essence, it was the best chance they were going to get. Adelle nodded once, and started to move, intending on playing rearguard. The Jedi moved faster.

"And no," Aiden said, the word soft but absolute. "No Plan A. Not this time."

He took a small step closer, lowering his voice even further so only she would catch it through the hiss of pipes and the distant thrum of the warehouse.

"We stay together," he told her. "Nothing unnecessary this time. No heroic delays. No sacrifices you think you have to make to earn your place in the line."

Beneath her buy'ce, Adelle raised her eyebrows. The helmet and visor canted ever so slightly to the side. True, she had used up all her explosive munitions in the hangar. But she had been a master in her former Jedi Order. She had, as a knight, done more exhaustive things. Like brain surgery with the Force. As a master, she had torn down and rebuilt a man's whole arm.

She hadn't broken a sweat yet.

"I will do what's necessary," she assured the Jedi. "Trust me. I'm a professional."

"They are not safe," Aiden added, eyes forward again, the alley already forming in his mind like a door he intended to open, "Until we have them off this planet."

"We'll need to coordinate with local authorities," Adelle said. "The last abduction happened on Denon."

The rest of what she had to say, the children didn't need to hear. <<Cult must be stopped. They'll take more.>>

She stalked through the maintenance shafts, the children quiet behind her. Her steps were quick but light, blaster held at the ready in her right hand, saber hilt in her left. The metal clangs had turned into a hiss behind them: they were finally cutting their way through. Adelle picked up the pace, the children instinctively quickening theirs. She didn't need to say anything. They all knew how much time they had to make their way to the warehouse.

Adelle eased open the hatch door to the warehouse carefully, HUD having already flagged no lifeforms beyond. She waved the children onto the catwalk at second story height, as a loud bang came from the shaft behind them. Adelle didn't bother looking at the Jedi—they both knew time was up. Stepping quickly and quietly, she led the children to the ladder leading down to ground level. The alley service entrance wasn't far now.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Adelle Bastiel
​

"I do trust you," Aiden answered quietly as they moved, his voice pitched to reach her and only her. "That is exactly why I am telling you we do not gamble with you as the price of everyone else getting out."

The number sat heavy in his mind, thirteen. Not a handful. Not a tight little cluster you could hide behind a coat and a confident stride. Thirteen sets of footsteps. Thirteen faces. Thirteen hearts beating hard enough to be heard in the Force if you knew what you were listening for.

He reached the alley access and looked at the barricade, eyes tracing the angles the way his hands traced forms during training. The Force gave him the geometry of it, the stress points, the places a body could slip through without scraping metal and making noise.

"We get over this barricade," he continued, more to Adelle than to the children. "Then we send them out in pairs. Small, steady groups. No running. No scattering."

Aiden's gaze swept the alley, cataloguing doors and broken windows, places that looked empty because they had been forgotten. That was often the safest kind of place, at least for a minute.

And then he saw it, next to the bar, the dark mouth of an abandoned clothing shop. Its signage was half-peeled, its windows filmed with dust, but the shape of the place read as shelter. As concealment. As a second chance.

He nodded toward it, his expression tightening with cautious purpose.

"That store," Aiden said. "If it's still got stock, or even discarded jackets and oversized shirts, we can change their silhouettes. Hood them. Layer them. Break the pattern."

He did not pretend certainty he did not have. The Force did not tell him what was inside, only that it was quiet, empty of obvious life.

"If it has been cleaned out," he added, honest, "We do not waste time grieving the idea. We move them as they are and we accept the risk."

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Denon, Lower Levels
Tags: Aiden Porte

Adelle sliced the lock on the door open and waved the children through into the alley, waiting until the Jedi himself was at the door. She stayed at the doorway, making sure the system relocked before the hatch inside was breached, while the Jedi moved into the alley. The Force moved, like water guided by unseen hands, washing over and through the barricade at the edge a few meters away. Beyond it, the alley ran a long straight line with precious little in the way of cover or hiding spots.

"We get over this barricade," he continued, more to Adelle than to the children. "Then we send them out in pairs. Small, steady groups. No running. No scattering."

“Going through the bar wasn’t exactly my first choice,” she said quietly. Her helm tilted up as she looked at the height of the barricade. The smaller kids could squeeze through a gap they made but the larger ones would have to go over. If they used the Force, the Vahlans would feel it.

He nodded toward it, his expression tightening with cautious purpose.

"That store," Aiden said. "If it's still got stock, or even discarded jackets and oversized shirts, we can change their silhouettes. Hood them. Layer them. Break the pattern. If it has been cleaned out," he added, honest, "We do not waste time grieving the idea. We move them as they are and we accept the risk."

Adelle walked up to the barricade, gently pushing her way through the scared children huddling near the Jedi. She switched through its various modes but it seemed as empty as the Jedi said it was, discarded clothes scattered all over the surfaces she could see through the viewport. A quick check in the Force confirmed it was devoid of sentient life.

“Good eyes,” she said. “Visual scans aren’t picking up anything bigger than a meer rat. Right. Little ones through, bigs over.”

She aimed her left vambrace at a large pipe poking out of the warehouse’s wall and fired the grappling hook. It wrapped around the metal and caught, a tug ensuring the hook was secure. Adelle pointed out the three that wouldn’t fit through any hole they could make quietly—two boys and a girl.

“This is going to be a very short trip,” Adelle said, making sure her tone stayed calm and gentle. “You hang on to me, and we go up and over then down slow, okay?”

She gestured to one of the boys, the oldest if she had to guess. “Come on, you first.”

His face was tight with emotion and she could feel his fear, his suspicion of her, his bewilderment—but he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her armor. Adelle hooked her right arm under them, making sure he was secure, and then started retracting the wire, the mini repulsorlift generator working hard to lift them up. Carefully, she swung them over the barricade and released the wire again.

The boy stumbled when she set him down on solid ground and his face was pale but he straightened immediately. Adelle wasted no time scaling back over the barricade and doing the same for the other two. As soon as the big kids were on the other side, Adelle went over to the hole the Jedi had made and helped him with the last of the eight kids. When the last one slid through, she looked at the Jedi through the chainlinks and tilted her helm a little.

“Need a lift?” she asked, allowing a brief moment for humor.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Adelle Bastiel​

Aiden's gaze flicked from Adelle's tilted helm to the chainlink and back again, and for the first time in what felt like hours, something light managed to slip through the tension.

“Need a lift?” she asked, allowing a brief moment for humor.

Aiden huffed a quiet laugh, the corner of his mouth pulling into a smirk. "I think I might be able to manage," he replied, dry as dust and just as steady.

He set a hand on the fence, vaulted up with practiced ease, and swung his legs over without so much as a stumble. When his boots hit the ground on the far side, he straightened as if he had always been meant to land that cleanly, then shot Adelle a look that said he was absolutely going to pretend it had taken no effort at all.

"See?" he added softly, amusement lingering in his voice. "Graceful."

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Denon, Lower Levels
Tags: Aiden Porte

The Jedi vaulted the fence clean and Forceless, landing near silently and with a little flourish but Adelle knew from experience how much effort that took. Her helmet tilted again as she lifted her eyebrows and smirked.

“On a scale from one to ten, I give that about a six, seven,” she said dryly. She turned and began herding the children into the abandoned clothing shop, letting the Jedi make sure no one was left behind. She let them run around the shop, picking up pieces of fabric after a few instructions, and then set to scanning the structure. Not for lifeforms, but for escape routes, other entrances, anything that they could use to throw off their pursuers.

From what she could remember her old Order telling her about it, all Vahlans were Force sensitive and primarily used the Dark Side. Getting the kids to safety meant finding a way to hide their Force presence. It also meant finding a route to safety. Adelle punched in a command on her vambrace and pulled up local maps. A corner of her HUD flickered as all the images she could access flashed one after the other as it compiled the information.

A small hand tapped her arm. Adelle looked down and saw a little Twi’lek girl in a shirt that could have been a personal tent for her. Beneath the helm, she smiled. Break up their patterns indeed. Adelle inclined her head then gave a thumbs-up for a clearer indication of approval. Her HUD pinged, drawing her attention inward. Public methods of transportation were up a level or two at best, and a decent jaunt at that.

Time to regroup with the Jedi.

“The nearest public transport station is two klicks away. We could ‘borrow’ a speeder but finding one that can fit all of them will be difficult,” she said quietly, before lowering her voice further—for his ears only. “The Vahla will still be able to track us, even with their disguises. I have the ability to hide their presence but that will require my full concentration.”

She tapped her chestplate softly. “And we both need to find our disguises.”

 

[Aiden Porte]

Adelle Bastiel​

Aiden let out a small laugh that surprised even him, and the sound landed softly in the abandoned shop like permission to breathe.

"Let's go with a seven," he said, voice low, teasing despite the urgency. "That should be at least a medal, right?" He glanced at Adelle with a smirk that lasted only a heartbeat, then his attention returned to the children as they spilled into the store.

They were already tugging on clothes that were comically oversized, sleeves swallowing hands, shirts hanging like tents, collars slipping off shoulders. Aiden's expression softened as he watched them, equal parts relief and quiet heartbreak. He nodded once, as if he could make the situation sturdier with approval alone.

"This will have to do," he murmured.

He reached to a half collapsed rack and pulled free what looked like a torn cloak, the fabric frayed and thin, barely enough to cover part of his upper body. He threw it over one shoulder anyway, as if confidence could fill in the missing cloth.

A small giggle rose from near his knee. One of the children looked up at him, eyes bright with the kind of honesty that did not wait for a good moment.

"That's not a disguise," the kid said. "We can see your face."

Aiden's smirk returned. He lifted the ragged cloak and drew it across his cheek and nose, covering half his face with exaggerated seriousness.

He replied, muffled and deadpan.

The child giggled again, and for a brief second the room felt less like a hiding place and more like a normal moment that had wandered into the wrong story.

Aiden let the cloak fall back into place and turned to Adelle, the humor fading into something steadier without becoming cold. His voice lowered so the children would not carry the weight of it. "Veiling them is a good option, but we have little time to spare, we will all have to move at once or in two groups, somewhat close together." he said plainly.

He glanced toward the door, then back to the children as they adjusted their ridiculous outfits, trying hard to be brave. His eyes met Adelle's through her visor, calm but firm.

"You take one group," he said. "I will take the other. We keep close enough to see each other, close enough to respond if something goes wrong. They should not be walking alone, not with what is hunting us."

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Denon, Lower levels
Tags: Aiden Porte

Adelle nodded once then turned to the shelves and racks herself. Her helm would be a dead giveaway so she needed to transfer the routes to her vambrace’s holoprojector and put it in a bag or sling of some kind. Her armor also needed to be covered, at least partially. Something that might have been a tunic a long time ago would serve as a carrier for her helm. Adelle tied the sleeves around one shoulder and knotted the hem before tearing the collar and widening the hole there.

When she pulled off her buy’ce, she heard a small gasp, felt the stares from the younger children. Her scars, probably. Even adults had a hard time ignoring them. Adelle slipped the helm inside the makeshift bag before pulling something that might have been a cloak or robe—and was now half its original size—and tucked one side into her belt, draping it over the ammuntion packs and field medkit. It almost looked like the belt spats she’d seen others in her clan wear. The tattered remains of a different cloak she threw around her shoulders. Not a perfect disguise, but hopefully enough to buy time.

Dark Sided presences approached the warehouse door to the alley.

Speaking of time.

“You,” she said, pointing to the biggest child. “You’re with him. Watch for the littler ones.”

Adelle pulled the two other big kids and two of the youngest into her group. Then she closed her eyes, breathed, and reached into the Force, pulling down a suppressive blanket over half the children’s presences and trusting the Jedi to do the same with his group. Art of the Small kept her own presence weak, barely noticeable, so using the Force to suppress her group wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The Jedi would probably have a harder time.

“Two groups,” she whispered. “I’ll take point.”

The warehouse door opened and Adelle crouched low, motioning for the children to do the same. They made their way to the front of the store, the door locked and frozen in place.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Adelle hissed. Fortunately, one of the transparisteel windows next to it had been broken, a hole just barely large enough for her to crawl through. She removed as much of the broken transparisteel from the ledge as she could: she was wearing armor, the children and Jedi decidedly weren’t.

Crawling out the window was anything but dignified, especially since she needed to land on her feet and she had her helmet knocking about her body in a sling. But she made it, the ragged cloths covering her armor intact, and she helped her group out the window. The littlest she carried in her arms, holding the next youngest’s hand and trusting the older two to follow close behind.

Orders echoed down the alley beside the shop, loud and sharp. Adelle briskly crossed the pathway and merged into the flow of pedestrian traffic.

<<They’re coming,>> she warned the Jedi.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Adelle Bastiel​

"Stay close to me," he said softly. "And you keep the little ones close to you. You are not alone in this."

He felt the dark sided presences before he heard them, a pressure at the edge of the alley like a storm leaning against a door. Adelle would cast the suppresive veil over her group, Aiden did the same with his, not trying to erase them completely but to blur them, to make the children's signatures feel like ordinary life, like nothing worth hunting.

It cost him. It always did. He accepted the strain anyway, because there was no other choice.

When Adelle's whisper reached him, two groups, she will take point, Aiden answered with a small nod. He tightened his focus on the children at his side, letting the Force settle into something firm and protective around their clustered fear.

Then the front door was locked, frozen in place, and Aiden's expression flickered with a brief, incredulous disbelief that he immediately swallowed.

As Adelle cleared the broken transparisteel and slipped through first, Aiden moved to the window and guided his group into position. He kept his voice low and steady, a gentle cadence that gave them something to follow when panic wanted to make them bolt.

"One at a time," he murmured. "Feet first. Hands on the ledge. I have you."

He lifted the smallest in his group through the opening with careful strength, taking the edge of the glass with the Force just enough to keep it from biting skin. He followed the next child with the same patience, then the next, keeping his own presence veiled, keeping their breathing even. When it was his turn, he slid through without haste, landing lightly and immediately turning back to offer a hand to the last child as if they were simply climbing down from a playground structure.

Orders echoed down the alley, loud and sharp, and the dark presences swelled closer. Adelle's warning reached him in the Force, tight and urgent.

Aiden did not look toward the voices. He looked at the children, because that was what mattered.

"I hear you," he sent back to her, calm and certain. "Move with the crowd, and do not run."

He swept his attention outward, picking a path through the pedestrian flow that would not force his children into open space. He kept his group close enough to Adelle's to respond, but far enough to avoid drawing two targets to the same point. His hand hovered near his saber, but he kept it hidden, because hope here looked like anonymity, and truth here was simple.

They were not safe yet, but they were moving.

Aiden guided his group into the stream of foot traffic, shoulders lowered, face half hidden by a torn cloak, and his voice stayed soft as he spoke to the oldest boy beside him.

"Keep them with you," he said. "We are going to look like we belong, and we are going to get out of this."

The captors arrived at the alleyway enterenace, looking towards the streets, advising them to spread out and find the kids and the ones that rescued them. Things were going to get tricky...

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Shouted instructions echoed through the narrow alley and sidepaths as Adelle led her small group along, threading quickly through what little foot traffic there was on a smaller path. Once she hit the main thoroughfare, her steps slowed to something more casual but still purposeful. After all, the assumption would be she was a mother out with her children, and mothers did not play around if they were out in an area like this with their kids. Suppressing the kids’ presences, making them the same as the general populace’s, did require a good bit of effort. She could hold it until the transport station if necessary but that would not be ideal.

Boots thumped against durasteeel plating as someone ran up behind them. Adelle jerked the kids to one side, out of the way, as the runner passed. One of the Vahla. The child holding her hand clung to her leg, hiding their face in her makeshift skirt.

“Easy,” she said softly. “They’re looking for a big group of kids, a Jedi, and a Mandalorian helmet.”

Adelle knelt and looked the young boy in the face, brushing dirty-blonde hair out of his eyes. “You’re safe with me. We’re going to get you home. Stay close.”

She looked at the older kids with her and waited for them to acknowledge that they needed to stay close as well. They nodded and she stood, discreetly checking the holomap of the route they needed she had downloaded to her holoprojector. Making sure they were headed in the right direction, she gathered the little boy’s hand in hers again and started the deliberate pace again.

More of the cultists walked among the crowd, never looking her way twice. She gave them a wide berth, as wide as a normal woman with kids would give a dangerous looking cutthroat. Adelle could not feel the Jedi or his children behind her since that was the whole point, and she didn’t dare look back for them.

Vahla on speeder bikes hovered slowly past the pathway. Once or twice, Adelle stopped in front of a store window, more to hide the number of children with her and watch the reflection than to keep her cover. One klick passed. Halfway.

A pedestrian bridge arced gently over a large gap between blocks, speeders flying over and below it. In front of it, the cult leader stood motionless. Adelle ground her teeth and she felt the little boy balk. One of the larger kids gasped.

“Steady,” she said quietly. “Keep walking.”

As they neared, Adelle fully brought down the blanket of the Force around them, bending light and air around her small group. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck, the added rags trapping heat in her armor and bodysuit. Adelle guided the kids around other pedestrians, trying to keep them all together and make the use of Force stealth a bit less taxing.

The cult leader stood before them, a severe-looking Vahla in black robes with red and gold embroidery at the hems. His hands were clasped behind his back and he had the air of someone waiting. Adelle led the kids around him, her eyes never leaving his face.

But he didn’t glance their way. He didn’t turn.

Adelle still held the cloak around them until they were fully across the bridge, and only eased up to where it was just their presences she was hiding. She found a couple large crates outside a shopfront and sat down on one, gathering the kids behind her.

She had to make sure the Jedi got across with his group.

 

[Kiran Arlos]

Im a dunce.....​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Adelle Bastiel
(I'm so, so sorry. lmfao)​

His group moved cleanly past the Vahla, quiet and steady, just another cluster of civilians in a crowded lane. For a few precious seconds, it even felt like the plan was holding.

Then a voice cut through the street.

"Stop them!"

Aiden did not turn immediately. He felt it first, the shift in intent. The sudden surge of dark focus snapping onto his group like a hook. Something had stood out, whether a child's fear, a flicker in the Force, or simply bad luck. It did not matter now.

What mattered was movement.

Aiden's expression stayed calm, but his body changed at once. He stepped in behind the children and guided them forward with quick, firm motions, ushering them ahead of him and toward Adelle's position.

"Keep going," he said, low and steady. "Do not look back. Stay together."

The crowd between them and the Vahla thickened, pedestrians startled by the shouting, some freezing, others shifting aside. Aiden used that hesitation like terrain. He angled himself to the rear of the group, placing his body squarely in the path the Vahla's men would have to force their way through.

And they would have to come through him first. It would not be good for Vahla's men.

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Denon, Lower Levels
Tags: Aiden Porte

The shout caught her attention even at their distance, and Adelle felt the change in the Force. She set the smaller children down with the two others and guided them back against the wall, her focus still keeping their presences unnoticeable. Her stride carried her to the edge of the pathway, a few meters from the pedestrian bridge so she had an angle on the people walking on the otherside.

It took her precious seconds before she laid eyes on the children—the biggest child held the hands of two other kids, chin held high in spite of the pursuit behind them. And between them and her, the Vahlan leader still stood. His posture said he was looking further down the walkway than their position but he was alert now. Looking. Searching.

Adelle drew deep and extended her reach, bending a cloak of Force around the children to hide them from view. They did stop when they saw the leader in front of the bridge, fear flaring and pushing back against the cloak. Adelle clenched a fist to keep her focus on the cloak then reached out to the biggest.

<<You are hidden. It is safe to walk past.>>

The boy took a hesitant step forward and then another, coming into what would have been clear view for the cult leader.

The leader’s eyes remained fixed ahead of him towards the confrontation.

The children scurried past him quickly, moving onto the bridge while their fear turned to giddy relief. Adelle moved to guide them to the others and turned to look back over her shoulder where she knew the Jedi would be drawing their hunters’ attention.

<<I have them all. I’ll be back. Stay alive.>>

Adelle picked the smallest ones up in her arms and gathered the others to her, giving soft but strict orders to follow and listen to her exact orders. One kilometer wasn’t long but guiding eight kids with someone potentially fighting for his life behind her, it was going to feel like a lifetime.

“Hold on, Jedi,” she breathed. “You can’t tell me ‘no heroic delays’ and then do it yourself.”

 

[Aiden Porte]

Adelle Bastiel​

Aiden held the lane while Adelle moved away with the children, and he felt the thread of her presence stretching, then fading as she focused on distance and cover. He stayed planted, shoulders relaxed, eyes calm, letting the crowd slide around him while the Vahla's men forced their way forward.

The first one reached for him. Aiden shifted aside and guided the man's momentum past him with a simple turn of the wrist and a small pull through the Force. The pursuer stumbled into his own allies, and Aiden used the opening to press them back without striking, a firm push that sent them reeling into the bodies behind them.

Another attacker surged in. Aiden raised a hand and stopped him short with an invisible wall, holding him there just long enough to step forward and drop him to the ground with controlled precision. Blaster fire then came, Aiden raised a barrier of force energy.

Then he reached for his lightsaber, the blue blade coming to life.

“Hold on, Jedi,” she breathed. “You can’t tell me ‘no heroic delays’ and then do it yourself.”

"Sorry about that," Aiden muttered under his breath as he set his stance again and he could not help the small, rueful smirk that followed. "Force of habit. What can I say."

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Denon, Lower Levels
Tags: Aiden Porte

The last kilometer of distance felt agonizingly slow. The Jedi had drawn the attention of most of the remaining cult but there were still two Vahla that patrolled around the block on a modded speeder bike. Adelle had to divide the kids into small groups, going back and forth to move them along without arousing suspicion and never moving more than four at a time. Painfully slow but there was no other way. Their safety was paramount.

The durasteel walls of the public transit station finally gleamed within a couple hundred meters. Adelle paused in front of a window, making sure she had an angle on the speeder lanes by the walkway, and uncovered her left vambrace. One command later, and the schedule and routes for the transit speeders scrolled past in front of her, blue light emitting from her holoprojector. She found the one she needed, one that stopped close to a legal authority. Someone that could help the kids find their families and keep them safe.

Adelle pulled the rags back over her vambrace and gathered her current group of three kids to move them again. Up ahead, the Vahla scattered pedestrians as they landed their speeder bike in the middle of the walkway. They started walking towards her, grabbing people and looking at their faces, paying particular attention to the shorter and child-sized people and races.

Osik.

She herded them closer to the shops and alleys, quickly tucking them behind crates and pipes, whatever she could find, then moved along to the next small group and did the same. The last two kids she moved forward as close as she could before tucking them back behind things. But the Vahla kept patrolling back and forth along the walkway.

Well. She had hoped to avoid using Force cloak so intensely. Eight children were a lot to manage, even without using the Force on them. Adelle extended her awareness and reach, finding each child and hiding them from view. She beckoned the two she just hid out to her.

“Stay next to me but don’t hold my hand,” she said quietly. “They can’t see you.”

She walked slowly, a close eye on the two with her through the Force. They very carefully walked past the searching duo, past the speeder bike, until she found some place convenient they could stand out of the way. Twice more, she led small groups of children past the increasingly agitated cult members until she had collected all of them together again. Cautiously, she eased up on the Force cloak, forgoing invisibility for forgettability.

The Vahla did not notice.

Adelle made it to the transit station with little time to spare before the transport took off. With the line to purchase tickets, she cut it close but finally made it onto the transport with all eight children. Adelle breathed a sigh of relief but didn’t relax her hold on the blanket suppressing their presences yet. They weren’t quite safe just yet. But they were getting there.

“Hang on, Jedi,” she muttered under her breath. “Just hang on a little longer.”