Dead Ice

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was moving with her, loking over the information and she had had a moment there. Maple looking into her eyes and being thankful. She was glad this was something she longed for with the jedi. That simple moment where someone was thankful for you helping them and wasn't demanding something more of you right away. Something simple as it were though she knew they were in danger as she moved hearing the plan and she gave a nod. She knew how to work with some of the thingas and she was a tinkerer as it was. "I can seal the doors to buy us time, you find the parts and get them going... We'll knock the droids out and then look towards the real prize."

Matsu was walking through the hall and she had her saber as she was working to get them through quickly enough. She could cover them with her lightsaber for the danger and Maple had skills that might be able to better work on it. She had a small ionic disruptor rod for handling things but it had a low charge copared to many of the other things. She knew that it could arc out well enough. "You ready to begin?" She said it and had her sabers ready, hands on the hilts for the biometrics and they were force activated so it wouldn't be such a danger. She could send them around before the jedi master reached out with the force and was focusing the energies.

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple finally reached th lab while leading Matsu, who looked more than ready for battle. Maple ripped open the old electronic panel and fiddled with the wires for a second, and the ancient doors creaked open.

"ALERT. WEAPONS LAB BREACHED. ALL SECURITY UNITS RESPOND." the public system announced.

Maple was rushing through, looking for the parts she required. Most of it was rusted over, but some was still in working order. Maple began grabbing parts for power and to actually generate the emp. The gadget she was making was likely going to be a one time use, so they could not go through the whole facility with it.

Maple began hardwiring this stuff, grabbing the small fusion cutter she had brought to help along with some barely working soldering tools to start joining it all properly. Meanwhile droids, mostly rusted B1's and a few B2's began filing into the passageways quickly, firing at the weapons lab and at Matsu.

"Matsu, I need about four minutes. Can you stall them?" Maple asked. She was almost done jury rigging the emp device. She was lucky there was anything still usuable in such an old facility. The cold had done a good job of preserving things.

The device was sphere shaped, with old droid power cores for power and ionic generator parts to emit the field. It wasn't high quality. But it would work. Once. That is, once she finished properly fixing it alll in place so it wouldn't take her face off once she turned it on.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu moved in as the alarm was going and she allowed the force to guide her movements. She was sinking into it, her danger sense expanding outwards. Her feeling of Maple as the woman worked, the feeling of the droids as the metal was visible to her minds eye. Everything was there and the jedi master just moved in a glide around the room. From droid to droid as the snap hiss of the lightsabers came. Pale beams of energy humming throughout the room when she slashed and deflected a shot back into another droid. Matsu moved to avoid a shot and brought her saber up before she swung the blade to reflect the shots into a droid head.

She spoke using the meld to let it be known that she heard Maple but she was to sunken into the force and the movements that she was going over with everything. 'Understood' She stayed with it, letting the force enhance her body as white whisps of force energy she was generating came off of her. A tight lipped smirk on her face, the twisting of her hair as the crystal bells jingled, the thick braids leaving a trail when one hit a severed piece of metal and sent it flying backwards towards the wall. Matsu pushed the force as she twisted after a minute of slicing and threw the saber sending it through the chests of some of the droids.

Second minute, the saber returned to her hand and Matsu did a flip brinigng the force to her foot to side kick an arc of energy into the face of a super battle droid and send it splitting in two... sending the pieces towards different droids off to the sides. Her interest within the force went over while she was hoping Maple would have the device finished soon enough. She had stamina for days, she could keep going as long as they needed but eventually numbers would become to overwhelming and the more droids she sliced and destroyed, the more debris that was on the floor... the more danger of sliping there was or that off step that would ruin her flow of combat and bring her back to normal.

The third minute the jedi master was feeling more of it, allowing the force to revitalize her body and she landed on one fo the droideka's that came through with its semi working shield. Going on the shoulders while she drove the saber into the shoulder to start the cannon firing and she directed it into more droids with a nod of her head. "How are things coming along?" She said it and made her own protective bubble around herself to prevent shots from coming in with a better look. The grin on her face as she sunk into the battlemind opening the meld fuly. Unlike others she didn't give anger as an emotion, she gave calmness and serenity.

The fourth minute, Matsu stayed where she was and was making it more of a shield that the droids could bypass and get through blasters through. She was luring in as many as she could to get the maximum use of the emp before she spoke. "Better hurry Lady Harte." She was saying it and the meld allowed her to send as much energy as she could for serenity and calmness to move around. To focus and push oneself to the limits while Matsu watched them and her eyes were glowing practically witht he lightside of the force when she continued to keep the shield itself up for them. A repulse to push back some of the droids and then to deflect melee blades from the commando droids.

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple worked as fast as she could but emp was no rush job. One wrong bit of wiring and she might catch fire if she turned it on. Or turn into a zombie. That had happened about five minutes ago, hadn't it? Or was Matsu the zombie? Had she been the zombie all along?

Maple did a quick check, watching as Matsu elegantly defended herself from the encroaching droids. Nope. Didn't look like a zombie...unless she was one when Maple simply wasn't looking. She double checked again, hoping to catch any potential transformation as she worked. Nope. Matsu was normal. One hundred percent.

The emp generation units were actually fairly sophisticated, ancient, but once she finished rigging it all together, they'd be able to generate a very great field, something that would go very far and deep. Maple surmised a lot of the parts here had originally been designed to be used on much larger devices and weapons.

The droids advanced as Matsu told Maple to hurry.

"Almost...there!" Maple said just as the roar of fire from the advancing droids became overwhelming.

"Done!" Maple said, and powered up the creaky, makeshift device, crossing her fingers, shutting off her own electrical equipment so whatever she had would not get fried in the wave.

Maple turned the EMP on and the whole facility shuddered as the lights went out. The droids attacking Matsu shuddered, sputtered, and some burst into flames before dropping, their ancient parts reacting far worse to the emp then they would have if brand new. But they were nine centuries out of date.

The droids fell to the ground, some still smoking, in front of Matsu. Maple looked around, then at Matsu.

"That worked a lot better than I thought," Maple spoke in the darkness. Even the PA system looked blown out.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was looking at her and raised an eyebrow while she tried to move around... unsure about what would be some of the risks of the EMP when it finally went off. All of the waiting and all of the dangers that were coming to them she was able to at least handle.. for now with a small look on her face. "We did it." Matsu said it and hopefully nothing would be too damaged down here as she loked at some fo the droids that were on fire and looked back at Maple. "Well never let it be said you fails to set things on fire." She offered a wink and smile but was moving now towards the areas of the room to put out the fires and clear them a path.

Matsu was moving the things aside as she spoke getting to oneof the larger doors and opening it up with the force and her saber. "Ipressive though on the fly making the device, not many would have had the know how or awareness to keep a calm head and focus instead giving into panic and maybe risking it being smaller or less effective." Matsu opened the doors as she found it, the lab that they were able to work on and bringing about a fglow rod. It was massive with a whole lot more to it in terms of what they were working on. She could see the designs and the experimental generator to give the power to the prototypes still worked.

They had enetered one of the sealed sections of the facility and it was impressive to say the least.. she was guessing this is where the scientists would have made the technology to overcome the war efforts, to beat back the republic. "THis is where we want to be, look out for it." She was trying to feel it, she was trying to find it and there it was in the center of the large room. A ring of metal and wires but Matsu was able to see some parts of it as well as the displays. The droid and them had worked on it before abandoning the facility it seemed. She could see fix points that they wanted to make and design to control where it was going to be moving around.

 

[Maple Harte]

"Oh, you pick up all sorts of things breaking out of death traps the way I have," Maple replied. "Escape from certain death...always a skill I tried to foster."

Maple followed close behind Matsu as they entered the deeper parts of the section. The EMP had affected far more than she had anticipated, even if one took into account the age of the droids it had destroyed, including the MagnaGuards in the section they were now in. Central Control would still need to be accessed, if only for the sake of unlocking the transportation experiments. As she entered the large section with Matsu she spotted the strange ring that was the focus of the Jedi's attention. She spotted Central Control's upper booth at the top of this area's floors, reachable by winding staircase, this section less dilapidated and frozen over than the parts they had already entered. The ring Matsu was looking at was protected by a still functioning security field around its displays.

Maple headed for the stairs to central control when wall panels opened up and out came two MagnaGuards. Apparantly not all of them had been claimed by the emp. They even looked more intact then the one she had spotted previously. Their phrik alloy vibrostaves came out as they approached Maple and Matsu.

"Errr...Matsu? Might want to get your blade out. Its General Grievous's favorite action figures!" Maple joked darkly, getting out her cane and striking at one guard who parried while the other rushed [member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was looking at the ring and she had an idea of what it was and might be able to do... the vague notes the simple mission that had been on records but the team was lost... however based on this how they were. THen she heard Maple and looked up with her saber going back to her hand so that she would be able to look around. Oh my. The jedi master thaught it to herself while she was moving up to stand next to Maple with a look at her. Offering the other saber in her hand as she didn't know how strong the cane would be against them. "Just in case." She said it while thinking about it and had a small grin appearing on her face.

Matsu was looking at them though and they were protecting what loked like a control center while she moved in facing off against the magnaguard. Her saber gliding into a reverse grip before she planted her feet. Djem So was her style of choice as the magnaguard was coming at her and slashed getting the phrik staff to smash into the saber blade and Matsu waited for a moment. Letting the reverse grip hold her steady. To go where they were moving when she pushed back with a nod of her head at the droid. Matsu was allowing the force to strengthen herself before she was countering the attack and slashing into the arm of the droid.

The saber moved along the arms and it cleaved it off, herself going back into position with a look on her face when she stood there and the jedi master didn't need both of her sabers but she only needed a single moment to come here before she remained focused. her eyes were looking forward until the jedi master allowed Maple to move in and attack them as she released a blast of ionized lightning to disable one of the magnaguards that was coming at her and the rest of it. The one she had attacked was there with one arm before it fell to the floor and parts scattered off of it with a look.

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple stood next to Matsu, watching the MagnaGuards, though when Matsu offered her a blade, she was almost too stunned to accept it. She wasn't very good with it, a standard blade, but she still remembered enough to chop crudely with it. As Matsu attacked one, Maple held the standard blade crudely with the other to crudely, belatedly parry a sophisticated blow from the phrik alloy staff of the other MagnaGuard, while Maple was forced to retreat backward, parrying with both saber and cane crudely, and dodging what she could not while it attacked her from left to right at a relentless pace. But it was an old droid, and its attack patterns had degraded somewhat...new MagnaGuards would likely have posed far more of a genuine threat then these ones did. Matsu herself had easily disabled one, while Maple was still struggling to hold hers off. But fortuitously, Matsu released an ionization power on one damaged guard to disable it further, and the way this distracted her guard allowed her a moment to use the handle of her cane to crudely pull its staff one way in a hooking gesture, while jamming Matsu's saber right through its head. The guard collapsed, and she cleaved through the other from head to groin just to be sure even after it had fallen.

Maple stared a moment, exhausted, looking then at the gentle light of Matsu's blade before shutting it off and handing it back. She didn't say a word, instead only nodding and grinning while she made her way up to the control center, and powering up dusty but still functioning displays, though parts of its core code was badly degraded, Maple managed to trick the delicate system with a few lines of code to disable the field around Matsu's prize. She also transmitted a shut down command to all remaining droids in the facility, ending the alert and disabling it.

Maple slowly came down from the control center, heading back to [member="Matsu Ike"].

"Go on. Ask. I know you're dying to ask. But I like you. I'll answer."

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was looking at Maple fight and then she returned her saber and questions formed in her mind, interest but she wasn't going to make a thing of it. Former padawans, those trained but choosing to leave the order or even those expelled, failed were a small thing. Not uncommon compared to many in the order so she had an idea or several that might have been the basis. Maple was heading up to try and end the alert as Matsu made sure the droids were disabled and was looking at the equipment with a small look. The alert ended and Maple returned offering her a chance to ask all of her questions. "Well there is something that I was wondering."

The jedi master thought about how best to phrase it and was walking up to meet the bounty hunter as she looked over her and up into her face. Maintaining eye contact. "Do these robes make my butt look fat?" She said it with a small raising of her eyebrows and spun around slowly for a moment while she stood there and held her hands up. The jedi master stopping in the spin with a nod of her head as she looked at Maple. Offering a warm smile and then she nodded her head. "I am curious though about your past Lady Harte but well all good things in time. When you are ready, when you are willing. You'll tell me, you'll want to tell me... it mgiht even be a need."

 

[Maple Harte]

Oh, why did she have to spin? Especially like that and ask that question?

Matsu had made flirting comments beforehand but this.

Maple tried to play it safe just in case she was misreading Matsu's intent. But it seemed an awful lot like Matsu was hitting on her.

"Even if it did make your butt look fat...which it does not, junk in the trunk is never a bad thing." Maple said smoothly, still wondering if Matsu was hitting on her or not. If it had been any other woman, Maple would have followed up with something far more...scandalous...in response. But Matsu was a Jedi, and having been one herself, Maple knew first hand how some of them could develop strange quirks of humor that could easily be misread as something else by an outsider...or in Maple's case, a washout. Skip. She was streaking through space on a space whale that smoked cigarettes. Everyone did in that delusion. But they smelled like grape so it was okay. The maggots were making whole munitions factories beneath her scalp anyhow. Smooth sailing on that front, as well as all the ladies deoderant money could buy. Skip. Back with Matsu.

Matsu had it going on, the Bounty Hunter thought in the back of her head mischievously. She knew she was cute, and she likely knew Maple knew that Matsu knew that Matsu was cute. Damn, that had been confusing, she thought, trying to work out the logic of that thought and not quite succeeding.

Maple approached the ring. "A need to tell you huh?" she said slyly, examining the ring they had gone to all this trouble to get. "Hmmm...a need...perhaps after that dance then..."

She said it friendly enough that it was amicable, but a hint of flirting entered, low enough most would not pick up on it. "C'mon. Lets take this and go. Is it safe to pick up and handle? I dunno how it works."

Matsu spinning took up Maple's thoughts for a split second. She'd be remembering that spin for a while, it seemed.

Why did she have to do the spin, she thought again in amusement.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu looked at her and Maple seemed to be getting flustered or thinking about things as she stood there and was bringing up the ring. The information all there. "The ring is something that will help but the design and this." She was bringing it up as the information on the design and all of the improvements would serve them well. She was getting all of the design before looking at Maple who had come along with her taking it in and she stood next to her with a smile on her face. "We have it." Matsu was looking at it and walked towards the ring as she spoke. "There is not much but.... we can have that dance if you want. The droids are gone, you protected the beautiful girl, seems only right to bestow upon you a prize don't you think?"

Matsu said it with a smile on her face and brushed some hair off the side of her face, a stray bang while she looked up and offered her hands reaching out with them while shuffling her feet in front of herself. She looked up at Maple and there was no music but she was letting the force breathe and radiate around herself. To let Maple come in and celebrate their success as she pushed outwards with the force and allowed her to come and join the jedi master. Take some time to decide but Matsu wasn't worried around it. Spinning again to music within her head, holding her hands out so she could join her.

She let the dancing go on for a while longer until something happened, the sound of the machine starting up as Matsu looked at Maple for a moment and it came. The ring glowed with power, with energy that crackled off of the skin raising the hairs on her arms under the robes. Matsu felt something in her stomach drop for a moment until she was standing at an area. The lighting was different, the stone and metal floor around them. The murals of beings that she couldn't recognize for the moment. Matsu was staggering and went towards Maple more to grasp her and hold her so they would both have something steady.

She was trying to speak but it felt like she had a bomb go off in her head while the jedi master fell to her knees and reached to grasp and hug Maple. Surely she was either going through much of the same or she would be able to steady her when slowly Matsu closed her eyes and worked to try and filter the white noise out of her mind and recollect her thoughts. She was reaching out with the force to try and figure out where she was... this region of space she could feel it. They were no longer on Ando Prime... they were... they were.. she could feel it and her eyes shot open as she looked around. "THe Valtaullu RIft."

 

[Maple Harte]

"Ohhhh, I'm the dashing prince in your damsel-in-distress LARP-ing, eh?" Maple joked, as she took Matsu by the hands, spinning with her in a random dance. To ordinary people, this would have been incredibly strange, dancing in the middle of a strange secret facility with droids that had just tried to murder them. For force adepts, it was a slow brunch. Without mustard, at that. But that was cool, since she hated mustard ever since she was a child.

It tasted so...mustardy. Maybe that was why.

Maple spun and matched Matsu's movements, partly questioning if this was just in her head, but Matsu had that bewitching lithness to her movements that had always been in the type of women that caught the bounty hunter's eye.

After a while it just became relaxing. Maple tried not to get too caught up in it, but this was a strange moment.

And then, the ring thing glowed.

"Twenty credits says I wake up and this is all a dream." Maple said, right before she felt her stomach drop and then a million worse noises flooded her mind, bringing her to her knees momentarily before she staggered up and towards Matsu, getting a glance of the strange surroundings.

When [member="Matsu Ike"] said where they were, Maple's eyes widened. "Where's that? And how...'screwed' are we, on a scale of one to ten?"

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Thought of her last time here in the gap came to the jedi master.. she was uncertain about it and thinking how screwed they could be.... it was not a good thing. THey would have been stranded here and it was going to be difficult. Being close to places with creatures like the croke. "EWe could be vary, this is not a place you want to go to without a plan." She was looking at Maple and went over to her while she wrapped her hand around her. "THis place is dangerous, the gap, the rift it is alluring, ancient beings were here at one time, ancient force creatures of primordial fear and power that their influence can be felt by people."

Matsu was looking at her and turned to look at the room itself when she was reaching for her arm. A bodyguard was one thing but this was not going to be something easy to handle.... she moved her eyes around as the massive planet sized temple that had been constructed seemed dead and ancient. It was quiet a lot more so then when she had seen it previously. She had met an ancient fear god that Rave had found a way to summon and a number of jedi, sith and rogue masters had fought it... and that was only a small portion of it because the force rift it had used was smaller then the being itself.

So yeah as she was walking and looking around she didn't want to have to deal with that as she moved into a balcony over looking a section of where they had been. The darker shadows obscuring the two fo them, flames licking as they became brighter but was letting the jedi master hug the shadows and motion for Maple to be quiet when the being came rushing in. Several of them wearing black straps, the kanzer were a death cult composed of several groups previously from the unknown regions. Their outfits were scantily clad but that fit in with their rituals which were much much more sinister. Blood and force rituals, orgies and sacrifices that were used to appease their dark gods.

'Search for whoever defiled this temple.' The voice was there, soft and careful but the being doing it was smaller then she had seen before, pale skin that reflected the torch light, black straps that were there and seemed random but everything was carefully placed leaving her skin exposed to the air so you could see nothing private and yet you had nothing to the imagination about her assets or what was under the robes. Hair like a black cloak around her when she looked around towards the jedi master and stopped searching. 'Come out.' The voice was there, the language was not basic... it was a mixture of the different groups and sounded guttural and harsh.

Matsu remained quiet and watched intently working to ensure they couldn't be seen as some of the other females who were coming around didn't go into the small alcove they just looked around and made noise to try and get a reaction. Before they were moving on and going to other chambers. THe jedi master let out a breath as she could feel them going off into the distance but she still didn't speak while looking at Maple and nodding her head. A small bubble around them of silence that would mute their whispers even more. "Kanzer priestesses, darksiders who worship and want to preform the ancient rituals to honor their gods."

 

[Maple Harte]

"Ohhh, I remember these guys! I remember taking a scoped maser to one of them waaaay the hell back when I...uhh...when I..." the bounty hunter trailed for a moment in uncertainty before deciding that given the situation they both needed to know the others strengths

Maple sighed for a moment.

"I guess I need to tell you at this point. I was a Jedi Shadow." Maple admitted. "And if anybody knows how to sneak into a place and kill a bunch of people...its probably me. I...I wasn't a very nice person...you would not have liked me. I wasn't...'human' enough." Maple explained. "Between the two of us, I think we can nab the one in charge. If anyone knows how to bring us back where we came from its Miss Black Straps and her sexy sexiness. Its starting to come back to me now." Maple whispered, as she looked down from her spot on the balcony. "I bet you her place is nice and cozy in all this. And we must find someone to make that outfit of hers for your size, make it look like you got a little bit of junk in in the trunk. I 'love' to help you with that by the way. I'm a certified tailor. Honest! Sorta. Well, I'm practically certified anyway." Maple said creeping down a balcony pillar with a silentness that made much more sense...and became much more unsettling...when one took into account her silence as she moved was the silence of a practiced killer. She dropped silently to the floor, having already spotted a low ranking Kanzer priestess and was sneaking up on the loincloth wearing female, cane out. The priestess had apprantly been still patrolling the passage with what looked like a vibrosickle in hand, and had stopped to adjust her clothing when Maple's cane slipped around the priestess' neck, cutting off the air supply and rendering her unconscious within moments before dragging her back into the area where [member="Matsu Ike"] was. Skip. She was controlled by sentient piles of fruit peels, and the galaxy rested atop a turtle. Skip. Maple began removing the unconscious priestess' clothes, gesturing for Matsu to come down.

"Remember Matsu, when in doubt, use a walking stick to put someone in a sleeper hold." Maple told Ike happily as she began removing her own armor. "C'mon, we'll pretend you are my prisoner. My sexy middle aged Jedi prisoner."

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu looked at her and listened to her story as she waited and then spoke over thhe body... she was focusing the force to keep the woman unconscious with a nod of her head. "I understand, there was a time long ago when I was a shadow as well and I know what can happen from them." She was looking at her though and seeing Maples plan to disguise herself the jedi master remained there where she would be able to be the disguise as welll... a jedi prisoner. "I don't know if she'll be able to send us back but there will certainly be a ship we can find and use at the very least." Matsu stood up though and ha slimmed down her equipment to look captured.

"Well hopefully this will do." She had her sabers in her thigh pack and that was conealed with her robes to give her the junk that Maple so desired. With a little padding to blend it into the back of her robes before she was setting them to the side. It wasn't anything she couldn't replace but she didn't want to make a habit of it so keeping it hidden. The jedi master though did take the chance to look at Maple and moved over to her while she brought her hands up to touch her shoulders. "But thank ou Maple for trusting me, for telling me." She offered a smile though and as much warmth as she could, as much light as she could before looking at the loin cloth.

'Though well, this middle aged jedi master will just have to snicker a little at the sights." She smiled though and then went serious while she was turning around and showing where she had the equipment they mgiht be able to use if they needed it. "ALright so back up equipment is here with the padding but just in case. The kanzer are dangerous and we are going to want to be careful even if we don't get surrounded." She knew they were dangerous and had gone undercover to infiltrate them somewhere else. She had not come here except once but it was hard to forget such a place. The heart of their dark rituals and where most set up.

She could recall it and investigating places like this as a shadow had been important you had to know how to move and blend in without giving into the darkness around you. She had moved freely and learned a few things while walking with Maple there.. her guard as it was and captor past some fo the rooms where the different being who made of the kanzer resided but they were different compared to many. The all female taungs had changed to human's and other species. Still holding to the all female directive and they were darker mandalroians... The other groups that made them up something more sinister this far out in the unklnown regions.

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple smiled back at Matsu. "Thanks for...understanding...Matsu."

Maple stashed her own Armor and cane along with her rifle, taking up the vibrosickle as she took Matsu by the arm and led the Jedi Master. The first order of business was locating whatever hanger they had and immediately marking it for departure. She kept herself calm, or as calm as her madness allowed her. Skip. Matsu had created her in a dark ritual using the body parts of others. This was her first test. Skip. The dark sanctum that ebbed at her psyche with the pull of power tore her away from her false reality, and the lure of the Darkness made her want to unconsciously cling to the Jedi Master for help against it physically, no matter what kind of message it might send. But she kept calm and led the jedi Master past various priestesses until she was stopped close to what looked like a small foundry.

"Halt! Where are you taking this woman? Who is she?"

Maple yanked Matsu close, pushing past her brains insistence everyone spoke insectoid and projected a feeling of duty and submission. "This Jedi Scum was captured earlier! A ritual is being planned for this one and I cannot afford a delay.

The other priestess, a well muscled woman with dark hair and skin and blue eyes took a step closer. She held a vibrosickle in her hand.

"I don't recognize you. Are you a new inductee?"

"Why yes."

"How long back?"

"You know how long back. Its pretty fresh in my mind."

"There is something odd about y--"

Maple grabbed the woman by the throat and forced her to her knees.

"I said I am on my way to the high priestess. If you hinder her business in any way, I'll take this sickle," Maple said in an uncharacteristic snarl, letting the tip hover over the woman's eye.

"...and send you to our gods as an early sacrifice."

The woman choked in the lithe woman's surprisingly strong grip on her throat as Maple let go.

The woman stood up, rubbing her throat. "Forgive me sister, I meant no imposition. Please, continue."

Maple nodded curtly, maintaining an stoic attitude as she tugged Ike forward. As she turned left to what looked like a sacrificial alter of some sort, Maple spotted a window. In the distance about half a kilometer, she spotted a landing pad on the temple grounds.

Maple whispered to Matsu. "Hide for a bit. I'll go find you some clothes.

Maple left Matsu by a storage room full of what looked like alchemy ingredients and ventured forward. Killing one would send too much of a disturbance in the force, not to mention the effect such an act would have on her in a place like this. Her sickle glinted, simple and black, but with a gold filligree on the pommel and an electrical switch as she began to stalk one of the higher ranked priestesses alone in the halls, moving with the cold silence of an assassin as she got ever closer. She leapts, arms closing around the neck tight to cut off the blood supply, rendering the thrashing woman unconscious in seconds and then silently transporting the woman in a fireman's carry as she went back to where she left Matsu. She was grinning as she brought the priestess to the Jedi, making sure the coast was clear before doing so.

The priestess was wearing a similar kind of black straps outfit.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

SHe was watching it play out and knew her part... seeing what would be needed from her to sel the deception. A victim and she acted more beat down wearing the clothing while Maple walked and threatened the kanzer. With a look on her face though of freight though as she was taken into the ritual chamber and looked at Maple heading off. "Alright." She had a look though around the room and at the slave outfit while she was thinking of it. The force here in this temple on this world was dark and twisted. the kanzer were older the most knew. She had infiltrated them before on another world different from this one and remembered the horror that they had unleashed.

She had been younger and a shadow much like Maple had been but compard to many of the others she had been one of the shadows who were within the councils view. THey were sent out to stop a darkside cult and stumbled upon this... this group. Ancient and powerful from the unknown regions of the galaxy and they were organized compared to many of the others. COmpared to threats groups like the chiss fought all the way out here. She had also seen some fo the horrors that they inflicted across the galaxy tot he worlds that were on the edge of the unknown regions. She heard a sound out the window and was looking at the landing pad.

The kanzer were moving in force with some of their slaves and Matsu was not certain about what they might be able to find.... THen Maple was back with her and she had one fo the priestesses as Matsu looked at her while she had her eyes on the bounty hunter. Wearing her outfit was strange but now Matsu needed to change while she was getting into the black straps that have been wrapped around her. She could see her tattoo's and scars when she was wearing the outfit and it was larger then her in some areas but the jedi master stood there after she finished it. Getting her sabers and equipment to be under some of the wraps so they would look best here.

"Well at least we should be able to move around." She said it and looked down at the woman... hand going to her forehead as she covered her up but she was focusing the force to put her into a hibernation trace that would last until they were out of here. A safer way but it wasn't without risk as she would need to work on and focus her mind. "We'll be able to use their ship... I should still be able to pilot it." She shrugged and it had ben close to thirty years since she had piloted one of their ships.... she'd have to talk about it later before leading the way for Maple to come with her and the landing pad was larger then she remembered.

What was more as she looked at Maple and spoke low and careful keeping her eyes on the area around them. "It is a dangerous thing, thank you for holding back.... they wouldn't have killed you or tortured you if you killed one of their own... they would have welcomed you and done other things to you. THis is a cult of domination and the strongest are in control with duties." She watched it and came to the ship as she was opening it up and went to the older model that she knew well enough. Sitting inside of it as there was no one in the cockpit or in the main hold but she could see the cages and remembered those.

She touched the cold metal and was getting itno the cockpit of the ship while she breathed in activating the ship and putting in coordinates that would get them at least out of the orbit fo the planet and somewhere that should be neutral. "We are going to need to be careful." She said it while bringing the ship up and at the ready for it. She was sitting there and motioned to the copilots seat. "We won't have much time, we'll need to disable the tracker and figure out where we are going. THis far out in the unknown regions we are going to need something better then one of these transports. They are great for taking slaves betwen worlds but long range is not good."

 

[Maple Harte]

Along the route to the shuttle, Maple had discretely taken the time to retrieve her own things that she had stashed and calmly followed Matsu, walking past dozens of Kanzers. The power of the temple hissed like the reverse of a melody, yet just as seductive to listen to somehow. Maple withdrew into her own madness slightly, though being able to stare at Matsu in that outfit kinda helped. She walked with authority, like she knew what to do...and obviously Matsu knew to do the same. Two shadows, one a literal one of her former self, and the other, well, now somethings about Matsu she had not been able to pin on Dantooine, the obscure knowledge, especially about stealth and illusion...It should have been obvious in retrospect. But Maple's specialties had always been sniping. Perhaps that was why she had not caught it.

Maple followed Matsu all the way to the ship. No one working outside paid them any mind. They simply continued their own work. Some were maintaining other stuff close by and none of the other priestesses near them challenged the high ranking priestessess right to take whatever ship she would. It looked old, and the cages within spoke to unpleasant use, then Matsu told her it was good she had held back and the bounty hunter could only shrug. Sure. She might not have put any of them down, but that didn't mean someone would not have to eventually. Get someone too well organized with ambition and patience? That was how the Sith started. Maple staying calm and checking the engines of the vessel and then calmly, quietly getting inside while Matsu started the engines. Maple, having been taught the first thing to do when stealing a ship by Ursula was to do exactly that, Maple found the command switches that controlled the tracker on the cockpit system and disabled it with a few moments of quickly adjusting certain knobs and turning off a switch or two and the ship started to take off, and out of the side of the view port on Maple's side, she could see a bunch of Kanzers starting to run in one direction. They had found the bodies.

As the ship cleared atmosphere, Maple was looking through the astrogation charts on her co pilot screens.

"Oh, we are WAY out from Ando Prime." Maple said as she stared.

Just then, the alarm sounded.

Maple looked at Matsu. "Er...Matsu, don't mean to panic you...but we have fighters gaining on us. Three minutes before they are in firing range."

She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Matsu, whose aura seemed very gentle to Maple, could have a past as bloodsoaked as a Shadow. Maple had not looked like much of a threat. That was why she had been picked.

If they lived through this...they would have a lot more in common, if nothing else.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was looking at the screen itself as ships were in bound and she strapped herself into the crash webbing. Reaching out with the force itself as she didn't search for their minds she searched for the gap and what was within it. THere were still dangers this far out that few knew about and you needed to know how to investigate them as she brought them around and waited a moment. "Almost there." She wasn't spinning up the hyperdrive she wasn't gong to outrun them.. she just had to out think them as she looked towards Maple and had a small spark of amusement in her eyes. "I'd strap yourself in... where we are going.... neither of us is going to like it."

She knew that all too well as well kicking the ship to fly towards the ones coming after them, then she banked hard to the left to go deeper into the gap... a swirling area of space you could practically see the force storms forming in as it covered like a massive wound millions of kilometers and extended outside of the galaxy itself.... more it was unexplored even by her. Most didn't make it through the initial swarm that they were working going to face and the clusters of planets where the cult resided was here... the temple was at their doorstep as it were when she went itno the storm and the feeling of something pressing on her shoulders, chest and mind.

It wasn't darkness, it wasn't light either... it was older, stronger and indifferent compared to other force groups. Best way to describe it is... indifferent and sociopathic. Just there with its age forgetting real emotion or never having it in the first place. She knew this was one of the things that had driven the Knell of Knell of Muspilli to become a death cult, to worship the nothingness that could come... with the Kanzer Exiles and the Warriors of Shadow they were three dangerous cults that had merged into something larger. She had a look on her face though as sounds and screams came from the cages. Matsu felt with the force and there were minds.. scared minds in them when she motioned.

"Check those." She could feel them and there were slaves, ones they had brought here cowering in the corners where they had been attacked and beaten or bloodied. To be used depending on what the cult needed. Matsu was sending as much soothing energies as she could for the women before she squinted her eyes to watch the gap and area ahead of them. THe presence was in the back of her mind but Matsu wasn't fearful of it and she hoped Maple wasn't as well.. it responded to them it was a risk to those who didn't respect it more then those who faced it then those who came and ignored it. The sound of the ships being attacked had started to crash together.

'Careful careful.' THe sound came to her though while she watched it and rolled to the side when another shot forward and the storm slammed into it. Matsu was allowing herself to climb out of the storm before a hand moved toward the controls to get them coordinates for a hyperspace jump. She knew where they might be able to go and be somewhat safer.... or at least out of harms way when she was cleared. The force guided her jump as they were moving to a safer location deeper into the gap but away from them. Starlines appearing when Matsu leaned back and undid the webbing from herself to check on Maple. "Are you alright?"

She asked it standing there with a nod of her head, wearing the outfit was one thing and she had her equipment secured with Maples for them until she was looking over and outwards at the viewport. She blacked it to keep from loking out at the lines of hyperspace then stood up as she looked over a few things. The slaves that had been captured were standing there and had been scared seeing the two of them there.... when Matsu looked at them she crouched down offering a hand. "It is okay, we are not with them only undercover." In a manner of speaking. One of the females came over and she was bruised across her body while the jedi master started to offer some healing energy.

She was recalling it herself and knew the danger they had gone through.. what they had faced and recalled her own experience..... one of her first missions with the shadows had been infiltrating the cult and investigating with one of the main methods they used to recruit their members..... Slaves and captured victims. Matsu had spent weeks getting into position and waiting for the attack, then showing just enough skill and spirit that she would be captured and taken away. Broken down but not forgetting what she had planned when she finally managed to get out fo the slave pits and into the warriors of shadows... their priestesses who had descended from the taung.

That was where she had met some of them.... Aud was dangerous and charismatic with a thing she did like to do. SHe knew how to read people quickly and get into their heads so the jedi knight had needed to be careful but there was something to be said about them. THey were brutal, powerful and worshipped ancient beings. It had been the first time she had really seen well the brutality of the kanzers or what this cult had become. She learned their history as well and the jedi were ancient.. thousands upon thousands of years but these beings had been around since before the republic.... since before most of the civilizations in the galaxy and they fought each other.

So she had learned and sen and faced the trials and dangers. Her skin was marked with their tattoo's, intricate ones that covered most of her skin in places and looked like sith tattoo's to those who were more simple. In actuality they were spirit lines an older means... a way to see what a person had experienced and would in their life if you knew how to read it. She had seen the pages of the codex they were colecting once again and she had seen the horrors they had managed to unleash. Monster and dangers from beyond shadows from beyond the gap and the galaxy... that didn't have forms their minds could comprehend....

SO they had looked malformed and such as creatures no one would understand. The jedi master came out of her thoughts standing there over the woman while she was healing her. "It will be alright." She checked out some parts of it though and felt a little tired when they were going. "There is not much space in here but we will arrive somewhere, should be safer for now at least it was." She was going off of thirty year old information and much could have changed but the Kanzer didn't go against the chiss in large scale engagements. They preferred to be outside of their space to prevent the chiss declaring war on them.

"The kanzer and their servants don't go after the chiss so we should be able to get a neutral space betwen the area. They don't deal with the croke either or some of the other dangerous entities out here." Matsu went into the small room and it was mostly just a bed... not much space when she wanted to rest seeing it. "I need to rest, these old bones do feel pain after awhile when you are running around fighitng droids and cultists." She said it mostly as a joke standing there and around There was not much in the way of bedding for the others or even herself. SHe could set up shifts to sleep on the bed for them but uncertain when she sat there.

 

[Maple Harte]

When Matsu told her to strap in, Maple for a second was reminded of a moment not to long back where she had flown Veronika through a lethal geonosian asteroid gauntlet. It seemed Matsu had something of a deadlier nature in mind when she sensed the terrible, vast, and utterly indifferent power they were flying towards...a great rip that stunned the former shadow in its vastness, especially as they dived deeper into fierce storms, feeling that great presence bore into her mind silently like a ghost yet brimming with overwhelming power. She withdrew from that power out of instinctive caution and fear, though she did so slowly and gradually, worried she would "spook it" and make it mess around with all the sprockets in her brain that talked and clicked with spider legs softly tingling hairs on the insides of her skull. No sense getting too comfy with it so close. For the most part, it did not seem interested in actively harming her...but it still rumbled with an ancient power. Ancient enough that when she dared a side glance, she got...insight.

Matsu's distant order to check the cages broke Maple from her reverie and she checked the cages, feeling a horrid guilt hit her as she realized she had not even sensed these people the first time. She immediately opened the cages. "Shhh, its okay," Maple said, unlocking them. Some had hidden away in corners of the ship when they had stolen the ship. They had been abused and malnourished obviously. Standard hat for a cult like this though. Matsu seemed preoccupied trying to make sure those force storms didn't kill them, Maple began checking the wounded, some recoiling when they saw her outfit. But that ancient nothing still watched from inside somehow.

It was an ancient void, a nothing yet an everything. But even wisdom could occasionally be gleaned from an absence. In Maple's gaze, that side glance into its nature had given her the idea for a spell to try out later. Perhaps its chaotic nature had clicked with her own somehow. She felt the pull and fabric of it twitch slightly, though she still kept a reasonable distance, not taking her mental eye off it completely before the transition to hyperspace broke off its gaze from her. Maple let out an exhale. What the hell was that nothingness that had been watching her? How could a pure absence observe anything in the first place?

Matsu got up, explaining that they had been undercover, the slaves, still traumatized, began to settle down though by the looks of it there was not much Maple could do to comfort them, though she wanted to. She knew what it was like to be traumatized like this. Matsu then mentioned they should be relatively safe within Chiss space. Maple got up, sighed as she looked at the slaves who were now huddled together but standing. Maple got a glance of the intricate tattoos on Matsu's skin. First instinct was sith, and thus she really had been involved in some bloody events undercover.

A dangerous woman. Maple knew the type. Maple preferred the type.

"You get some rest Matsu, I'll make sure the ship doesn't die on us while you recharge the batteries." Harte said playfully, fixing a subtle gaze on Ike with an upward curve to her smile as she headed to the pilot seat. Maple's slight smile turned to a full on grin as she reached the pilot seat.

When Matsu was rested, they could talk more, mostly about their backgrounds, but Maple wondered if Matsu would also pick up on the fact she had just flirted with her. Not like she wasn't wearing the costume for it. Plus, slave rescues. Good bonus. Skip. Maple was the middle aged generalist, and Matsu was the bounty hunter. Skip. [member="Matsu Ike"] was like a not-cold Ursula.