Act I Through the Looking Glass [Green Zone Open Thread]

[Kay-Larr]

PIPEWORLD


Kay's body tensed at the knock at the door and hearing her full name being called. Did [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] call the authorities? She didn't think so as she had been with him the entire time. She quickly finished her tea and then got to her feet, gathering her satchel. "It's okay. I'm sorry if I am getting you into trouble." She looked to be sure that she had everything that she needed. Her blaster. She quickly brought it out. "Well, they wanted to see our hands....I have it set to stun. Now I'm going to hold you hostage. That'll help get us out of here and hopefully keep you from getting into trouble."

She pushed him to the door, holding her blaster at his face and yelling out in as rough of a tone as she can. "Open the door, infidel!!" That last direction should've gotten Thrukk to open the door. Or she would do it, didn't matter.

Kay tried to look mean and angry to the Peacekeepers. "I got orders from the Emperor to bring this infidel into questioning. That's why I was here. The orders were given way above your paygrade and if you want to cause me to fail at my orders then I'll see to it that you'll spend the rest of your lives knowing what a nail feels like when it is beaten by a hammer. Now MOVE!!"

Kay pushed Thrukk past the Peacekeepers and out of his apartment. She kept the whole charade up once they got to the street, seeing the chaos and noise getting closer to them. But one sight caused her to stop and do a double-take. The Trandoshan King. Butt naked. " [member="Vinskk Revamp"] ? Is that.....you?"

[member="Infected Drones"]

 

[Raziel]

[member="Darth Pikiran"]

"This isn't mass hysteria," Raziel said calmly. "This is external influence of some kind. Narcotics or something else." He nervously clicked some of his fingers against the palm of his hand. On the monitoring wall someone had blown out several blocks of Kintore. So many of the grey dots were now flashing bright colours. The influence was spread out radially from a central point.

“The Peacekeepers are spread thin right now,” he said to himself, but one of the analysts saw fit to bring up a map showing where they all were. The Emperor was correct, when you scratched at the surface the veneer of control was so very thing. It was supposed to be that way, the control was trained in, not enforced.

“Get CADs in a ring cordoning that area off. I want hazmat teams and several armed drones in case it gets nasty.”

 

[Vinskk Revamp]

That voice...it was the schutta's. Kay. It was her voice. Was this a plan of hers, to kidnap and humiliate him? The paranoid Trandoshan bet it was.

Vinskk weakly looked up. The rest of his body flat out refused to function in the conditions he was in, the racking pain and the biting cold. He could begin to feel his bodily functions shut down as he began to enter a hibernative state. Soon, he'd either fall into sleep forever or die. But he was fighting now, trying to move and stay awake.

He wouldn't stay that way for long, though.

"You...what sick plan of yours is this?"

He peered next to Kay and saw one of the Cartel Enforcers, Thrukk. Was he working with her all this time?

"Thrukk...you traitor...I'll kill you myself if I must...Sempra will hear about this, and then you'll suffer..."

Still no luck moving. His eyes were beginning to glaze over as his lungs began to slow down, and his weak hissing became frail clicks.

If he wasn't warmed up then, he'd enter a hibernation state, and then he wouldn't wake up for at least a good half standard year.

[member="Lady Kay"] [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"]

 

[Azula Tindara]

[member="Lady Kay"] [member="Vinskk Revamp"]

[member="Lady Kay"]

Thrukk went along with the routine, his heart racing as he was led out of the building. Perhaps she had saved him from a month of emotional therapy. Perhaps now he would just have a few days of treatment to recover from this experience. The DfR facilities couldn’t be that bad could they.

As the human turned in an alley Thrukk stopped. What was he to do now exactly? Was he supposed to carry on being the hostage? There was a collapsed and quite naked trandoshan shouting something inane in his direction as well now. He didn't recognise the trando? His train of thought was abruptly stopped by the sound of the safety catch being released on a carbine.

“Hands up!”

“Hold it!”

“We checked with control, there are no assets working undercover here!”

Thrukk held himself quite still, he hands up above him. Those weapons were not set to stun. Both were trained on Lady Kay. Damnit all, they were going to disintegrate her in the street. Without thinking further he acted.

Both huge arms came down and forwards with great speed. Wide flat palm slapped against the sides of their helmets and kept going. There was an almighty crack as their heads collided and plastoid helmets cracked. The pair dropped to the floor, fully unconscious.

“Weel i've gain an' dain it noo,” he sighed. He shouldn’t have done that. But they had been about to shoot her. Why? How did it serve the Empire to gun the human down? She was clearly confused and in need of help, but it was obvious she was a sensitive soul, not a danger to anyone.

But then again, she did carry a blaster in her bag.

 

[Mirror Emperor]

Any devices brought through the Mirrorverse would be subverted by the Imperial network. Within minutes they would simply become another terminal on the network tightly controlled by the Empire. They would start to receive hourly propaganda messages.

​

 

[Infected Drones]

Those native citizens of Mirrorverse who had started to display a rebellious attitude and all those who had come from the Chaos Galaxy would find the message morphing into something new.

​

 

[Kay-Larr]

PIPEWORLD

Kay was glad that [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] was working along with her on this. But the Peacekeepers seeing past her ruse was a bit disturbing. Whoever was in control here, they were very good.

After Thrukk knocked the two soldiers out, she dug into her satchel and brought out her spare clothes. It wasn't much for [member="Vinskk Revamp"] to use, a skirt, shirt and cloak, but it was better than nothing. She knelt down beside him and covered him to...well....protect his modesty as well as her eyes. She lightly tapped his cheek. "This is not my doing. We're not where we should be. This is a different Galaxy....." He was slipping unconscious still. He needed to wake up. Hopefully the Force still worked here. She closed her eyes and focused, concentrating on the Force in and around Vinskk. She moved the particles in the air, allowing them to heat up the currents in and around him. With Thrukk to watch her she'd continue to work on warming Vinskk up, her hands on his chest where his heart would be to warm up the area so that his body wouldn't shut down. Hopefully it worked.

 

[Vinskk Revamp]

PIPEWORLD

"What the kark...how...?"

The Trandoshan shuddered as warmth began to flood his center mass from Kay's hands. His limbs began to tingle with renewed energy and he began to move, groaning with pain. Revamp rolled out of the freezing puddle, lying on the somewhat dry floor now, one of the Senator's shirts covering his manhood. Was she...helping him? How did she do that? And what was this about a different galaxy?

"Ugh...what the hell are you talking about?"

The King weakly stood up, using the wall of the alleyway as support as his right arm clung to the shirt, covering as much as he could. What was going on? It beat him. The disheveled Slave Master groaned against the alley, head still muddled.

"You...Kay...what is this? Where are my clothes...?"

[member="Lady Kay"] [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"]

 

[Azula Tindara]

Thrukk was busy trying not to panic and hyperventilate. What had he done? These mad creatures were bringing his whole world crashing down around him. All he had ever known was the Empire. It reached from one extreme of the Galaxy to the other. There was no running from the Empire, no hiding. After what he had just done any action he did was just delaying his inexorable march towards a correctional facility. Hands on hips he looked incredulously from the trandoshan to the human.

"Mad. Bloody mad."

His fingers trembled and he found himself dropping onto his haunches and wrapping his arms around his knees. He slowly shook his head to himself. Might as well wait here for the drones to come and take him, he supposed. But they needed help. But he didn't feel like moving, just rocking on the spot.

[member="Vinskk Revamp"]

[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

"Keep your voice down. There are drones out there listening and I'm already in trouble with them just for being down here." She handed [member="Vinskk Revamp"] her skirt so that he could at least slip it on and tuck it up to make it into a pair of shorts. It wasn't as though she had a sewing kit.

Kay looked to [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] and frowned with a sigh. "I'm sorry that I got you into this mess. Is there any place that you could go? Maybe it's still safe for you to go back home as the soldiers there believed you to be my hostage." Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw one of her comm links on the ground. It might've fallen out when she got out her clothes for Vinskk. There were two messages being displayed, one almost overtop of the other. "Thrukk? What do you make of this? Do you know what it means?"

[member="Mirror Emperor"] [member="Infected Drones"]

 

[Azula Tindara]

[member="Lady Kay"]

Ever so slowly, Thrukk looked up from the floor. Concern was deep set into his features. "Don't you understand?" he asked incredulously.

"They see everything. They own every corner of the Galaxy. There is nowhere, nowhere to go. Everywhere they go," he said, waving to the unconscious Peacekeepers, "everything is recorded, processed, analysed."

His eyes went back to the floor and he continued rocking.

 

[Kay-Larr]

PIPEWORLD

How is that possible? Surely every corner of the Galaxy couldn't be owned and under surveillance. But this appeared to be a different place. Maybe it's a smaller Galaxy than the one that her and [member="Vinskk Revamp"] belonged to. They had to find a way back home.

Kay placed her hand on [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] as he rocked, trying to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "If you'd like, we could leave you here and you could pretend that I knocked the soldiers out and then you before running away. Maybe you won't get into as much trouble then...." Of course where she would go and what she would do is another question. Maybe she'll have to go up to District One and go from there.

The noises from the crowds on the streets nearby grew louder. Soon they might see others going down the alley. Whatever was to be done, they had to decide soon.

 

[The Page Master]

An old man

Spoiler

was walking quickly down the sidewalk through Pipeworld. He had just visited his family here and now he was heading back to his book store. He was stroking his beard and half paying attention to the world around him as he tried to think of new story lines and concepts for new books he dreamed to write and publish. A dream such as that was nearly impossible in this society, as the government had a strict hand in what got published. Fantastical tales of dragons and soaring adventures of the future in a galaxy far, far away didn't tend to make it. But, dreams were dreams no matter how realistic they could be.

He nearly passed up one particular alleyway when the sound of crunching plastoid armor jerked him back to reality. He went back to the edge of that alleyway and peered around the corner. Two aliens and a human were next to a couple of unconscious Peacekeepers. Now, he wasn't a sympathizer and he figured that the rebellion was a good idea. However, that didn't keep him from remaining cautious. Cautious or no, though, it was still in his heart to help out.

He walked over to the odd group. The only person who didn't seem to by hyperventilating or struggling to live was the human lady. He pursed his lips once, walked over to Lady Kay and asked,

"Hey, lady? Is everything alright?"



[member="Lady Kay"]
[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"]
[member="Vinskk Revamp"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

A hand would be placed on the shoulder of [member="Lady Kay"] and should she turn, she would be greeted with a familiar face - that of the Jedi Master Joshua DragonsFlame. His expression was grim, even a bit confused, but it was obvious that he was happy to find a familiar face himself.

He wasn't sure how he had gotten here. He had just.... Appeared, recently, and had wandered aimlessly. Where was he? Where was this? And why was Lady Kay here?

"Madam Kay" The Jedi would greet calmly with a nod of his head. He'd overheard part of their conversation but didn't know what to think of it. "You seem to know a bit about where we are. Care to elaborate?" He would inquire, nodding toward Kay's companion.

 

[Kay-Larr]

As she was trying to console [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] and in a way, [member="Vinskk Revamp"] as well, [member="The Page Master"] had arrived. How much could she tell him? She wasn't sure. Already she could see people rioting past the alleyway. "I...I don't think so, sir. We're all so confused and a bit lost. We can't stay here for long."

[member="Drones"] as well as [member="Infected Drones"] could be seen flying above the crowds, as well as Peacekeepers working to corral them. The unexpected hand of [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] on her shoulder caused her to jump a little. She quickly turned to face him. "Joshua?! You're stuck here too? I don't know where we are. It's some kind of a nightmare where some [member="Mirror Emperor"] rules every corner of the Galaxy. Everyone is under tight control. I don't know how to get back yet."

 

[Infected Drones]

[member="Lady Kay"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] [member="The Page Master"] [member="Vinskk Revamp"]

One of the drones sped towards the group, its outer holographic shell displaying warning signs. Yet as it approached it pause, stopping dead in mid-air as if time had stopped for the device. The holographic shell vanished for a moment, revealing the drones true body, barely larger than a small bird. Then the holographic shell flickered back to life. This time the strange red logo appeared. A logo the denizens of the chaos galaxy would recognise.

"Run!" a distinctly feminine voice hissed. A map appeared on its sphere, showing the mesh of pipes. "Take ZG3 down to the lower levels, the Peacekeepers are busy with the riots. You will be contacted. The end of the Empire is near!"

With that, the small drone sped away, out of sight before any further questions could be raised.

 

[The Page Master]

The Empire was nearing its end? Such an outcome seemed nigh impossible...yet, someone had reprogrammed that drone. That, in itself, was supposed to be impossible. What was he saying?? Nothing was impossible! The future could be written just like his fantastical books! It was good people like him who were the ones allowing the Empire to write it. What worth do dreams have if one does not have the will and hope to carry them out and make them reality?

The old man had made up his mind. He would help these people.

"I know where that is. Follow me, everyone!" urged the old man. He put his hand on [member="Lady Kay"]'s arm briefly, saying, "We must get out of here while the riot lasts. If you must, be as quick as you can to persuade the others. Otherwise, we must leave them and make haste."

As soon as he took his hand away from Kay's arm, a voice could be heard softly spoken in her mind.
...Lady Kay...Pay attention, my dear. This man is me...a LONG time ago... And, just like that, the voice stopped and would not be able to respond if Lady Kay tried to communicate with it.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]
[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"]
[member="Vinskk Revamp"]

 

[Vinskk Revamp]

The Trandoshan looked up from his stupor, still gaining control of his senses. The skirt that [member="Lady Kay"] had given him was far too small for the huge lizard, leaving little to the imagination for those beneath him. This was embarrassing. And who the kark were all these people who just showed up? An old man and a blonde Human were there now, speaking to the Senator. Then a drone came and told them where to go? This was too much for him. Vinskk's natural temper rapidly accelerated, and before he knew it, he was growling at the group, strength found in his anger.

"Does anyone want to tell me what the kark is going on?!"

The King looked to [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] and pointed a sharp talon at him, spitting venom in his hateful words directed at the four-armed alien.

"You! Get on your feet, you fething weakling! You're an Enforcer, for kark's sake! Get to work protecting me!"

Revamp then turned to the other two human men, malice evident in his tone.

"I don't know who the hell you two are, but if you're with us, you're helping us get out of this situation."

And, having saved the best for last, the Trandoshan turned slowly to Kay, trying his best to control himself and not spill her blood all over the alleyway's walls.

She saved my life.

This thought sent shivers down his spine. Not again...not another life debt.

This was too much.

"Kay...you saved my life. You bastard. I'll never...I...grrr..."

Great. A life debt. She saved his life, so now he owed her his. It was Trandoshan tradition, and the Scorekeeper would not be pleased if he turned his back on this debt. Fething great.

He had no choice now.

"I...am ready to serve in whatever capacity. However you need me, in whatever fashion, and whatever act you would like me to do, I am yours, Kay...."

Her name was hissed out in rage. The Slave Master was infuriated, but it seemed that they had more pressing matters on their hands. The lizard could smell the ozone of blasters and the cacophony of a riot nearby. Glaring in everyone present in vehemeble anger, Revamp spoke up.

"Are we moving yet, or are we going to stand about and get shot?"

[member="The Page Master"] [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

The young man's eyes would gaze up at the crowds. Rioters? Why? What in the world was going on? And then there were the drones overhead.... And then Kay would explain everything - somewhat. The idea that the entire galaxy was under the control of a single dictator, that was....

Frightening.

He didn't have his lightsaber with him right now, so he wouldn't be flagged. But the droid coming toward them alarmed him. It said something about... Something falling? He didn't understand... They would be.... Contacted? But how? And why?

It just didn't make any damned sense.

He noted the looney guy talking about serving in some capacity, and the Jedi would look over at Kay curiously.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Of course neither of them ran right away after the [member="Infected Drones"] had left. They were all trying to process the information. However what [member="The Page Master"] had said was true. They needed to make haste. The voice inside her head made her stare at him for a moment. Could it be that they were transported in time? Or was this just another oddity to add to the pile?

Kay looked to [member="Vinskk Revamp"] as he spoke to each of them in turn. He had every right to be frustrated and she was used to him barking orders. But now he pledged his life to her? Surely as soon as they get back, life would turn back to normal.

Each of them were just staring at her, as if it was up to her to make a decision. "Well, let's follow the route that the drone showed us. And quickly." She followed behind the Page Master, her mind racing. Whether [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] decided to follow was anyone's guess. But she knew that [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] would go with them. Kay hurried to the ZG3 pipe that led to the lower levels, unsure of just what they might find there.