Public Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

[Jacen Nimdok]

Setting: A spaceport somewhere in the Outer Rim...​

Nimdok was sitting in a very uncomfortable chair sandwiched between two other passengers awaiting transport. Doing his best to ignore the press of bodies, he kept his elbows tucked in and his eyes fastened on the datapad in his lap. His shuttle was due to arrive in fifteen minutes, which seemed like an eternity to wait in such cramped quarters, but wait he would, and without complaint.

“Daddy?”

Startled, he looked up to find a little girl standing in front of him. She was about six years old, with a mane of dark curly hair and large brown eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he began. “You are mistaken…”

He stopped himself, frowning. There was a slim chance that she was his daughter, separated from him in infancy by the wages of war. Given her young age, he doubted she would recognize him on sight.

But regardless of that unlikely possibility, something else gave him pause. Small details he had not noticed at first glance became apparent in the child’s appearance. Her brown jumpsuit, while clean and tidy, seemed curiously dreary for children’s attire—more like a standard uniform. Her eyes were dark with an exhaustion that didn’t belong on someone so young. Most chillingly, a still-healing bruise darkened the side of her face.

Before he could say another word, a hand clamped down on the girl’s shoulder, whirling her around.

“What did I tell you about wandering off, sweetheart?” the man now holding her said. “You don’t want to get lost, do you?”

The man, a short and balding fellow in his forties, looked nothing like Nimdok. He was joined by a slim blonde woman, presumably his wife. They were both wearing the same nondescript brown jumpsuits, and to the unsuspecting could easily pass for her parents.

As soon as they began to pull her away, however, the girl yelled, “Let go of me!”

The man attempted to quiet her, to little avail. Realizing the situation was deteriorating, the woman calmly picked the girl up and slung her over her shoulder.

The girl struggled against her grasp, kicking and screaming. As the man and his presumed wife hurried away, the girl’s heart-wrenching cries of, “Daddy! Daddy!” could be heard echoing through the bustling spaceport.

Nimdok was stunned by what had occurred, but he stood up and followed them. They were moving quickly, weaving through the crowds. The girl had gone alarmingly quiet.

If he did catch up, what could he do? He had no weapons. What could he say? Would the police believe him if he said his (possible) child had been abducted right before his eyes?

As he broke into a run trying to keep up with them, he shouted, “Help! Somebody help!” The throngs of travelers around him were unlikely to lift a finger, but there was always a chance someone would come to the rescue...

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic had stood up to go check out the screaming that had been going on towards the front of the shuttle when a blonde woman with a child slung over her shoulder followed by a short man bumped into him. "Watch it." He growled, placing a hand on the bounty puck strapped to his hip and the necklace dangling over it. "This is why I don't take shuttles." He muttered to himself as the two continued on. He made his way farther forward, soon bumping into a obviously distressed man shouting for help. The man tried to run past, but Leenic placed a hand on the man's shoulder and spun him around. "Woah there buddy." He said, moving his left hand onto his holstered pistol. "What seems to be the trouble? And, better yet, how much money is this trouble going to make me?"

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jacen Nimdok Leenic Ellsil

Red sat on the same shuttle, heading to some nondescript planet. Red didn't have a ship, so using public transports were the only legal option, as stealing ships wasn't so legal. He sat next to to other people. Red had his armor on, along with his helmet to his side. Red had his dual pistols strapped to his utility belt, along side his lightsaber. Red also had bis blaster carbine strapped to his back. Red even had multiple nonlethal smoke and flash grenades. Red had a couple of knives too. One could mistake him for a Mandalorian, but he was far from that. Red was a genetic experiment. Created for warfare, and trained since birth for warfare. Well, a lot like a Mandalorian, but Red didn't look like a Mandalorian. Red had fiery red hair, and the same fiery red eye color. The scientists gave him this hair color so that they could easily identify him.

Red was watching the entire ship, his enhanced senses allowing him to take in everything, and the Force allowed him to see even more. A little girl approached a man on the transport. Then two people took her away. The panic coming from both the man and the girl said enough, this was a possible kidnapping. The man ran off, yelling for help. Red grabbed his helmet, stood up and ran after him. The man bumped into yet another figure. Red caught up with them."Asking for how much money you will get from helping? Really? Well, to each his own." Red told the bounty hunter. He turned to the distressed man. "I saw what happened. I will help you. I'm Red. I am a Jedi, and a commando in the military. I can help. Did you see which way they went?" Red asked the man.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Nimdok nearly tripped over his own momentum as someone grabbed his arm, stopping him. He was brought face to face with Leenic Ellsil , a scarred and rough-looking Mandalorian.

“My—my daughter,” Nimdok explained breathlessly. Even if there was no relation between him and the girl, he felt morally compelled to save her from her abductors. “She was taken by a blonde woman. A man was with her—“

Subject 73 Red arrived on the scene then, and Nimdok permitted himself to bare his teeth and show some anger at the Mandalorian’s flagrant self-interest. “Either help me stop them or let me go!”

He wrenched his arm free of the Mandalorian’s grasp—but could no longer see the kidnappers amid the crowd. Cursing under his breath, he shut his eyes and collected himself, trying to think logically.

“I’ve certainly lost them now. If they’re smart, they’ll head for a more densely populated area and try to get lost in the crowds,” he said to Red. “I’m guessing the atrium—that’s where the most people are. Unless you have a better idea, Jedi.”

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jacen Nimdok Leenic Ellsil

Red could understand why the man was angry with the Mandalorian. The Mandalorian had gotten in the way with his chase on the two kidnappers, and then had the audacity to ask how much he would make off of helping. It was selfish, greedy, and arrogant, but being arrogant was a commonly known trait of Mandalorians, being raised for battle, and basically to be self-centered. Red was also created and raised for battle, but his lab training did include basic manners, and his Jedi training even more so, he was more of a passive, outward thinker, always thinking of anything but himself, his needs always last.

Red couldn't truly understand why the man was so in a panic about his daughter, but Red could understand what losing a loved one felt like, and the experiments were taught to not get that attached, and being isolated from of the rest of the galaxy had made them different from "normal" people in feelings, emotions, and way of thinking. His Jedi training had tried to teach him to also not get too attached, but Red was obviously different from most Jedi, being raised and created to be a killing machine with morals, so he had gotten attached to some of his friends. He might be different from normal people, but he was learning. Besides, a lot of the experiments that had decided to stay on the planet they were created on eventually got attached, married, and had kids, as they started to create an effective civilization. Still, Red had never married or had kids, so that was something he didn't entirely understand, the thoughts and feelings attached to it, but it was obvious the man was in a panic, and was having anxiety, Red didn't even need the Force to figure that out.

The man thought for a minute, then said something. "You haven't lost them yet. We have the Force, and I'm an expert tracker. We will find them." Red assured him. It was a promise Red meant to keep. The man spoke again, thinking about where they would go. Red pondered this for a minute, then said, "Possibly, everyone in crowded spaces will be too caught up in their own things to probably even notice anything. The bazaar is also a good option, this time of day, a lot of people are there, traveling through there, and it is loud enough that any cries for help would be drowned out by all the noise." Red offered.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

The bazaar was an option he hadn’t considered. Nimdok gave the matter a moment’s thought. “We could split up,” he suggested. “You go to the bazaar, I’ll go to the atrium.”

Hesitating, he added, “Give me one of your weapons. Something I can use to stop them.”

***

The short man and blonde woman found themselves in the massive atrium, where passengers passed through in order to reach their shuttle terminals. The traffic in this central area was far denser, difficult even for a trained Force user to penetrate the throng and find a single person in their midst.

“Where do we go now?” the man hissed to his partner, his eyes darting.

The blonde woman shifted the limp weight of the girl in her arms. She’d given the girl a tranquilizer shot to knock her out; to everyone else, the scene was that of a child who had fallen asleep in her mother’s arms, completely normal in the exhausting chaos of a spaceport.

“We have to get to our shuttle,” the blonde replied. She sounded like she was speaking the words through grit teeth, understandably angry and frustrated by their situation.

“But what if he goes to the cops?”

She glared at him. “Then we still have to get out of here.” She started walking, heading for the bazaar. The spaceport had a circular design, and no matter where you went, you’d wind up in the same place you started eventually.

Subject 73 Red

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jacen Nimdok Leenic Ellsil

Red nodded. "Did they leave anything behind? I have an ability to view the history of an object, view any people affiliated with it, and be able to hunt them down." Red told him. When the man mentioned splitting up, Red had an idea. "No need to split up. I brought backup." Red said, then pressed a button on his wrist gauntlet. A pit droid ejected from his armor and activated. It had been turned on, so it could monitor everything, and know what was going on. It was also tuned into his helmet's visor, so it could see everything, too. It had gotten a look at both abductors, and the girl. "Go find them in the bazaar. Alert me and local authorities if you do. Try and subdue them with your shock." He told the small droid. "Roger that!" It replied, then it ran off in the direction of the bazaar.

Red turned back to the man. "There, we now have eyes on the bazaar. I can head with you to the atrium." He said. The man then asked for one of his weapons. "One of mine? You didn't bring your own?" Red sighed grabbed one of his dual pistols and handed it to the man. "You know how to work a blaster, right? Use the switch for blaster and stun mode, trigger for shooting, button for turning on the safety." Red told him. Red also handed him a flashbang. "Just in case. Activate the grenade, look away from where you threw it, and cover your eyes and ears. Anyone within range of it or looking at it will be blinded and disorientated." He explained.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic watched as the two men worked almost completely in sync devising a plan. "A jedi, huh?" He thought, drawing his own blaster and following them. "This might be interesting enough to cover any costs." He then stepped into the mens' conversation.

"If you two are looking to save that kid, you're going to need more than a pit droid and some cops." He said, gesturing towards the crowd. "My guess? We got at most six minutes before those two find their ship and leave." He then looked out into the crowd and scanned the area.

"You said the kid's your daughter?" He asked, pulling the antenna down on his helmet to use as a short range binocular. "And that man and woman are hardly average looking people. And another thing, does the girl have any force abilities? I might be able to find her easier if she does."

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“I didn’t see them leave anything behind,” Nimdok replied to the redhead Jedi’s question. He watched as the droid sped away toward the bazaar. His sense of urgency had not faded, and he immediately began moving toward the atrium at the fastest pace the crowds would allow.

He wondered what the couple were doing with the girl. Selling her into slavery was his first guess. Handing her over for experimentation, another. Perhaps she would be delivered to the Jedi for training, or fed to Sith trainees as fodder. The galaxy was an abyss that swallowed children whole.

The Jedi begrudgingly handed him a weapon, but not before scolding him. Nimdok shrugged off his admonishment; he felt no need to be heavily armed all the time, especially given how tedious and difficult it could be to get blasters and vibroblades through security checkpoints. He had his intelligence and his wits.

“I know how to use it,” Nimdok murmured, feeling the weight of the blaster in his hand. He accepted the flash grenade with equal sobriety, wondering at how easy it was to smuggle weapons in a spaceport.

Unfortunately, the Mandalorian had decided to rejoin the conversation, catching up with them. He was at least correct in his assessment: they were running out of time. The first ten minutes after a kidnapping were the most crucial, and those minutes were nearly up.

But the hardened warrior also drew attention to Nimdok’s uncertainty. He had tried to hide it, always keeping his tone level when he spoke to the two men, but he realized he couldn’t afford to be less than honest when in the presence of Force users.

“She recognized me,” he admitted, averting his gaze to hide the troubled look in his eyes. “Though we were separated when she was very young, she knew my face. She came up to me and called to me… and then they took her.” His gaze hardened. “What matters is she believes I am her father, and she clearly came to me seeking help. I don’t know if she has any Force abilities—neither her mother nor I did, and if sensitivity to the Force is indeed a hereditary trait…”

They had reached the atrium. The steady flow of travelers was like a river that couldn’t be crossed, for they would be swept away by the current. Nimdok was a fairly tall man, but he couldn’t see across to the other side over the heads of the humans and aliens mingling before him. The situation didn’t look promising.

***​

Halfway to the bazaar, the blonde woman suddenly veered off, heading inside a bookstore. Her partner rushed to follow her, and once they were inside he quietly asked, “What’s going on now?”

“They’re getting closer,” the woman whispered.

“‘They’?” the man echoed. He swore under his breath. “Well, why have we stopped here? Shouldn’t we be going faster?”

The blonde shook her head. “I’m going to hide my presence from them, and you’re going to go out there and lead them away from us.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“There’s no other choice,” she snapped. “One of them’s a Jedi. I felt it. The other is… not a Jedi, but he has some connection to the Force. They will be able to track us down through the Force.” She dipped her head in the direction of the store entrance. “Go out there and make them think we’re headed in the opposite direction. You have money on you, use it to buy new tickets, a new ID, a new face—whatever it takes to lose them. I’ll meet up with you on Telos.”

The man sputtered, his face reddening with anger, but he could think of nothing to say. Expelling hot air through his teeth, he grunted in defeat and headed out, muttering, “You always were the brains behind the operation...”

Subject 73 Red Leenic Ellsil

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic sighed and shook his head. "Looks like I'm finding it out myself." He said, shutting both his eyes and focusing all his energy. Suddenly (for Leenic) the world went out of focus. Everything sounded as though it was underwater and shapes blurred when he opened his eyes. It looked a bit like a Van Gough painting except for the Jedi next to him and someone else. Standing a ways away was a dark shape with a faint red outline that was talking to someone. Seeing this, he put all of his energy into this one person and tried to identify them. As he did so, his breaths grew shallow and he had to kneel down slightly due to him becoming very light headed. Then he saw who the person was: it was the same feeling he had gotten from the woman he had bumped into on the shuttle. He then unfocused and released his grip on the force, letting the world slide back into view.

"Was the person that took the kid blonde, with a short man next to her?" He gasped. "If so, she's in that bookstore talking to someone. I can't tell if she still has the child or not, but she has a....dark presence in the force." He took a few deep breaths before standing back up and shaking his head. "It is a lot harder when you don't have full control over the force." He muttered.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Jacen Nimdok Leenic Ellsil

Red looked at the non-Force sensitive man. Red could tell he was troubled. Well, obviously, the man had found his, apparent, long lost daughter, then had her taken away. Of course he was distressed.

Then, the Force sensitive Mandalorian joined in their conversation. Red could feel that the Mandalorian started sensing out through the Force. The Mandalorian described how they look. "Yes that's how they look." Red nodded. The Mandalorian said something else. "Yes, I sensed her dark power, too." The Mandalorian stopped feeling through the Force, not finding the girl, or the short man, so it was Red's turn. Red felt through the Force, sensing, feeling, watching. "The short man is attempting to leave the planet, but the child is not conscious, so I cannot feel her. If she was awake and feeling a strong emotion like panic, anger, or fear, I would be able to find her, as it would make her stand out, but since she is unconscious and there are so many people there, it is uncertain where she is." Red reported.

He turned back to the non-Force sensitive man. "It's your call. Do we go after the man, the woman, or try and go for both? If we go both, I'll take the woman, I am the one trained in fighting dark siders, and I have a lightsaber." Red told him.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Nimdok watched Leenic Ellsil kneel on the ground as if in meditation, his face scrunched up in deep concentration. His sensing of the two successful, he rose to his feet again and gave near-exact locations for each. His words were some small comfort, but the task remained of dealing with the kidnappers and getting the girl to safety.

“Are you saying the woman is a Sith?” Nimdok asked, his eyebrows rising. That certainly complicated matters.

“We should attempt to catch both of them. Alive, preferably. The authorities will need to be informed if there’s some sort of trafficking operation on this station, and they could each be interrogated for more information.”

He nodded to Subject 73 Red . “Go after the woman. If my daughter is with her, make sure she is unharmed.” It bereaved him to know that the woman’s apparent darkness made it too dangerous for Nimdok himself to approach her, but it couldn’t be helped. He was entrusting this stranger who claimed to be a Jedi with his daughter’s life.

Turning to the Mandalorian, he added, “You and I will go after the man. Do you know his current location?”

***

After leaving the bookstore, the short man made a brief stop in the restrooms on his way back to the check-in area. He came out a few minutes later with a somewhat convincing disguise consisting of a hairpiece, wide-brimmed hat, and mustache.

After making a few idle adjustments to his getup, he got in line at one of the computer terminals from which shuttle tickets could be purchased on short notice. Wiping the perspiration from his brow on the back of his sleeve, his eyes darted around the room occasionally, watching to see if anyone was coming. The blaster pistol holstered at his hip felt slick in his sweaty grip.

Meanwhile, the blonde woman became aware of the probing of the other two Force users. They knew she was there, despite her best efforts to hide her presence from their senses. With a sigh, she took a seat in an armchair, arranging the girl’s unconscious body into a comfortable position in her lap, and pulled a book down from one of the shelves using the Force. The books were all antiques, so she made sure to treat it with obvious care and respect for the benefit of the watchful shopkeeper.

As for her pursuers, let them come. She would be ready to meet them head on.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Leenic Ellsil Jacen Nimdok

Red nodded. "If she's with the woman, I'll bring her back." He assured the man. Red turned and ran off in the direction of the woman. He contacted his Pitt droid to go and contact the authorities, and to alert them of the current situation. While the pit droid did that, Red would deal with the woman.

Red approached the bookstore. He slowed down to a walk, and reached the front door. He opened it and walked inside. He walked through the bookstore. He looked around for a minute, then, he saw the woman, reading a book, with the unconscious girl next to her. She was unharmed, good. "I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you." Red said, approaching the woman. "The man who claims to be her father would be grateful if you returned her." He told her."But I'm guessing you're not going to do it willingly." Red inferred.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic nodded and watched as the Jedi ran off toward the woman. "Let's get after this bastard." He said, drawing his blaster and setting it to stun. "If he's got your kid, we will get her back." He then took off at a sprint, heading for where the spaceport terminals were located. As he sprinted, he used the force and his vision to try to find anyone that appeared out of the ordinary before zeroing in on a man about the same height and build as the one he was chasing.

He sensed the man was distressed, and switched his blaster back to lethal before slipping into the crowd and slipping through it towards the man. Leenic noticed that the man was looking away from him, and took that opportunity to sneak up behind him. "Hey buddy!" He said, raising his blaster as the man turned around. "Where's the girl?"

The man reacted with a quick gasp, but used his free hand to push Leenic's blaster to the side and fire right above the heads of people in the crowd. "If you come quietly." He said, using his free hand to sock the man in the face. "And you might survive!" The man, however, drew his blaster and shot Leenic. The bolt was deflected by his beskar armor, but this time hit an innocent as the rest of the crowd decided to start running.

The man, seeing the battle was turning against him, turned to run but received a bolt to the knee from Leenic. He crumpled to the ground and his blaster skittered across the floor. Leenic saw this, and rolled the man over and punched him in the face once again. "I'm not gonna ask a third time." He said. "Where." He socked the man. "Is." Another punch, the man's face was bleeding heavily. "The." A third punch, and the man coughed up some blood. "GIRL?!?" The last punch caused a tooth to fly out of the man's mouth as he cried slightly in pain.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Leenic Ellsil

Nimdok hardly had time to react before the Mandalorian took off running. He did his best to keep up, but he couldn’t match up to the physical prowess of a trained warrior.

He arrived on the scene just in time to nearly be hit by the blaster bolt that bounced off the overzealous Mandalorian’s beskar armor. Nimdok ducked out of the way, but it hit a bystander. Chaos broke out as people fled the scene of the fight between the two men, and someone set off a shrill alarm.

As police units poured into the room, intent on breaking up the fight, Nimdok glanced at the casualty who had taken the blaster bolt beside him. It was a woman, coughing a spitting up blood from her wounds. Nimdok pulled her to relative safety behind a row of seats, then began administering basic CPR, trying to keep her stable. He was not a doctor, however, and she needed immediate medical attention.

Nimdok looked around, hoping he would find a policeman or a medical droid already on the scene, but no luck. Despite the police surrounding them, the fight between the short man and the Mandalorian had taken a turn for the worse. The Mandalorian was beating the man into a pulp even as he demanded to know where the girl was. With a missing tooth, broken jaw, and a mangled nose, the man spat up blood and begged for mercy.

“I’m jus’ th’ fall guy!” he wailed, his voice slurred by the severity of his wounds. “I’m a patsy, y’hear? I don’ ha’ th’ girl! I don’ know where she is! Please—!”

***

Subject 73 Red

Back at the bookstore, the blonde woman looked up at the Jedi who now stood before her. She showed no sign of worry at his words, and simply closed her book, setting it carefully aside.

“This little girl is an orphan,” she replied, her tone level. “Her parents are dead, killed in a transport accident. I adopted her.”

Sensing the commotion occurring at the terminals, her expression flickered slightly before returning to a carefully arranged mask of calm and confidence.

“You’re right, I won’t give her up willingly. Why should I? She’s mine.” Her eyebrows rose as if she had just realized something surprising. In reality, she had just made a calculated decision to instill doubt in her opponent.

"That thing claiming to be her father—he’s not really who he says he is. Haven’t you noticed?” She studied the Jedi, then shook her head. “No, you’re not powerful or smart enough to sense it. You’re easy to deceive.”

Standing up, she left the unconscious girl on her seat as she faced the Jedi. As she did, the last of her Force cloaking fell away, revealing her for what she truly was—a Sith.

The time for talking was over. She reached out her hand, envisioning invisible fingers wrapping around the Jedi’s throat, choking him.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Leenic Ellsil Jacen Nimdok

Red listened to the woman. Even though she was a Sith, he could at least hear her out. Everyone liked it when people listened to them. "I won't deny you, but the man that claims to be her father says that they were separated when she was young. So perhaps your story isn't entirely false." Red admitted. It would make sense. If there was a transport accident, and they all thought he was dead, she would become an orphan and go up for adoption, but if he really did survive but no one knew, that was a different story.

"You mean the man that claims to be her father? Yeah, there is something strange about him. He hasn't even told me his name. I have to admit, there is something about him." He said.

Then, her Force cloak fell away. Yep, she was definitely a Sith. It was even more so apparent when she started Force choking him. Red's supersoldier training allowed him to be able to last longer than most others would. He had been drowned in that training for crying out loud. Red activated a flash grenade, and threw it at the Sith. It exploded barely a meter from her face in a flash of disorientating light and sound. Red dropped to the ground. Then he took off, moving further into the bookstore, but still keeping an eye on the Sith. The shopkeeper looked at him in shock. "You might want to take a break and get out of here." Red told him. The shopkeeper nodded and agreed and hurried out of the shop. Less collateral damage.

Red turned to the lights. He concentrated on them, and then used an EMP pulse to disable the power. The room went into darkness. Red out on his helmet, and activated his thermal imaging. He could still sense where the woman and the girl were.

Let the fun begin.

"So, it's gonna be a fight, huh? So be it." Red said, approaching the woman and the girl. He activated his ligthsaber. The yellow glow illuminated their part of the room. Some of the lights were trying to turn on, but were failing, so they were lightly flickering, creating a disorientating effect.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Subject 73 Red

The Sith woman threw up her arms to shield her eyes from the flash grenade, breaking her concentration on the redhead Jedi. Within seconds, the store was plunged into darkness, the lights flickering as the power struggled to return.

Adding to the flashing lights, an alarm had been set off. For her, standing in that store under those circumstances was like being tortured—blinded and deafened, with the acrid smell of burning circuitry filling her nostrils.

She grit her teeth against these distractions, seeking focus and control over herself, if not her surroundings. Standing guard in front of the chair holding her prize, she drew her lightsaber, ready to match him in combat. Her blade was neither red nor violet—it was clear, like the water in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. A symbol of tranquility in the hands of a Sith.

It was the way of the Dark Side to strike first. She lunged at the Jedi, her weapon poised to run him through. If he dodged, she would bring the blade crashing down on his head.

***

Leenic Ellsil

A medical droid finally tottered over to where Nimdok was kneeling beside the wounded woman. “She’s been shot,” he told the machine, moving out of its way as it set to work.

The police swarm around the fighting pair had gotten to the point where Nimdok could no longer see them. After deeming it safe enough to make his escape, the archaeologist hurried away from the scene, leaving the Mandalorian to deal with the authorities.

He headed toward the bookstore the Jedi had mentioned held the blonde woman, but found he was barred from entering. Alarms were blaring due to an EMP-related power shutdown, and the doors had automatically locked down.

Hearing an agitated voice behind him, his eyes darted to a policeman talking to a terrified shopkeeper across the way. Concern for his daughter’s safety won out in the end, and he walked up to them.

“Excuse me. You wouldn’t happen to have any ysalimiri on this station, would you?”

Their conversation interrupted, the policeman and the shopkeeper turned to him with bewildered looks. “Yiss-what?”

“Ysalimiri,” Nimdok repeated. “A species of lizard capable of blocking the Force.”

Their expressions remained unchanged. Nimdok rolled his eyes.

“Really, considering how many problems the Sith and Jedi alike have caused this galaxy over the millennia, I am astonished that such creatures haven’t been turned into a commodity!” He shook his head. “Never mind. Is there anything you can do to stop a rogue Sith? Render her incapacitated, perhaps?”

“What are you on about?” the policeman demanded, looking at Nimdok with suspicion. "Say, were you involved in that incident in the terminal area with the Mandalorian and the escape artist?"

Clearly someone had reported his presence at the scene of the crime, including an accurate description of his appearance. Perhaps the local authorities weren't as incompetent as they seemed, but regardless, they were doing him no favors right now. “My daughter is trapped in that bookstore--a Sith woman abducted her and now she's holding her hostage,” Nimdok replied irritably, barely keeping his anger in check. “I know Force-users are virtually unstoppable, but can’t your men at least try to stun the woman? She is a threat to the public good, not to mention the property damage she has caused—”

“All right, I get it.” The policeman spoke into his commlink. “All units, this is a Code Six. Plaza bookstore. Child hostage. Stun setting only.”

Abandoning their attempts at arresting the Mandalorian Leenic Ellsil, most of the police which had surrounded him headed to the bookstore, their weapons set to stun. Within minutes, they would be overriding the lockdown and barging in.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic stood up and wiped the blood off of his fist. Some of the security forces still had their guns trained on him, while others moved forward in order to drag the man away. Leenic turned around and tilted his head slightly. "What's wrong?" He said to the officers. "Never seen a bounty hunter before?" He then began walking back towards to bookstore in order to see how he could help when one of the officers shouted at him. "Hold it!" The man said, standing firmly in front of Leenic with his rifle raised. Leenic, unmoved, merely walked past him. "Or what?" He responded to the officer. "You wont shoot me because we both know I'll put you down faster than that Sith will end you're guys."

Leenic then took off running towards the store, drawing his pistol as he did so. He quickly ran into the officers surrounding the store, noticing how they were attempting to breach the store through the front. "That's not a good idea." He muttered, looking around at the building. "Walking through the front door is a sure way to get yourself killed." He then noticed how some nearby carts and boxes allowed for easy access to the roof. He then ran over and used them to get on top of the building before grabbing a thermal detonator he had and placing it on the roof. "Now this is a good entrance." He said, activating it and stepping out of the blast radius, waiting for it to explode.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Leenic Ellsil Jacen Nimdok

The Sith sprung at him, but Red was ready. He charged right at her, bring his lightsaber up to strike back at her in an offensive move. Their lightsabers clashed against each other. Red then juked backwards. He was already showing a different style than most normal Jedi. That, of course, was because Red was obviously no normal Jedi. Being created and trained since birth to be a supersoldier and an effective combat machine, Red was used to killing, and had no qualms about it. Of course, he considered most of the other Jedi as idealists, but Red was more realistic.

Red moved back in. He swung his lightsaber in clean, precise strikes, not swinging widly in powerful strikes, but using small, concise strikes. He struck to her right, then flipped his blade to strike quickly on the left, then flipped it up to strike it at her midsection. Red went left, then went to the right. Red continued this quick method of striking.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Leenic Ellsil

The Mandalorian was on top of the roof before anyone could stop him. Nimdok saw the thermal detonator in his hands, the instantly recognizable blinking red light as the detonator was activated. He wanted to scream at him that he was a fool, that he would get them all killed—the Sith, the Jedi, the child. He envisioned them trapped or crushed underneath tons of rubble, buried alive—

Subject 73 Red

Inside the bookstore, the Sith woman snarled as the Jedi skillfully avoided her attacks, landing a few of his own. He followed no set fighting style, or at least none that she knew of, and her inability to predict his movements put her at a disadvantage.

Fortunately for her, other forces intervened. A thermal detonator placed on the roof exploded, causing the ceiling to cave in. Dust and rubble crashed onto the floor, and the Sith took the opportunity to use the fallen debris as an obstacle between herself and the Jedi. She stretched out with the Force, hurling chunks of concrete, glass, and plaster at her opponent—two opponents now, for a third party had entered the fray.

The police were outside as well, trying to force open the automatic doors. She was outnumbered and outgunned. Would she die here in combat against several foes? Or should she flee even if it meant abandoning her quarry, and live to fight another day?

The latter was the more logical option. She had no concept of honor, no impetus to remain there and be butchered just for the sake of not seeming cowardly. While her opponents were distracted, she deactivated her lightsaber, jumped up through the hole in the roof, and escaped into the crowds still milling around the spaceport. Her Force cloak hid her from their senses as she disappeared.

Moments later, the police overrode the door lock and rushed into the building. They stepped over the rubble, their weapons trained on anything that moved. "Hands up!" one officer ordered, moving to corner the Mandalorian.

Nimdok followed not long after, his expression pained. His immediate concern was the girl, whom he found lying limp in the same chair where she had been left by her kidnapper. At first he feared she was dead, but a check of her pulse confirmed that she was merely unconscious.

He turned to the red-haired Jedi. "Where is the woman? What happened here?"