Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Frozen Rescue

[member="Connor Harrison"]

"Well ... this is embarrassing to say," Taeli said into her comlink, ducking from a stun bolt that was trying to knock her cold. "Connor ... I may have gotten into a bit of sticky situation..."

It had started off as a normal trip for her, just a chance to go study some of the ruins on Ilum. She heard about the gate like structure there, and while she had spent considerable time looking through the temple the Jedi had maintained here, she had let her curiosity get the better of her. The ancient Gree enclave had captured her attention, and she had gone to study it and the defunct pylons that powered some ancient transport gate.

That was when she had stumbled upon ... her problem. A whole mess of pirates and mercenaries had been camped out in the area, mining the crystals here and seeing what artifacts they could dig up to sell on the black market. Well, that had upset her just a bit, but how was she to know that blowing up their weapons cache would go over so badly? Still, maybe she should have thought this through completely. Luckily, they didn't know she was a Jedi ... unluckily, she didn't have her lightsaber on her this time. Just her archaeology equipment.

"I'm transmitting coordinates of a pirate/merc base on Ilum ... and they're about to capture me," she continued saying. "Connor, I'm calling in one of those favors you owe me ... please ... I need some help."

As she closed the comlink down, she felt the barrel of a blaster against her back. Closing her eyes, she raised her hands slowly.

"You just cost me several men and priceless equipment," a gruff voice said, pulling her by the hair. Ow ow ow. "Who are you? Actually, I think I'm going to enjoy beating the answer to so many questions out of you."

Opening her mouth to voice her displeasure at his suggestion, she never got the chance as no less than three stun bolts hit her. The last thought she had before the black claimed her vision was that these pirates might have chosen the wrong girl to take prisoner.
 
The E-wing pushed through hyperspace, a chart plotted across the galaxy from Voss to Ilum, with Connor Harrison relaying the transmission from Taeli once more as he took the controls.

...please ... I need some help.

He had tried to get a reply following her final message, but nothing came through, and he could only assume the worst. She wasn’t dead – she was too interesting to pirates and mercs to just be killed, so rather she was being held prisoner on the ice world.

Connor had found it amusing at first hearing her voice come through, but the more he heard and listened, the more he heard the commotion in the background and the faint desperation behind the confident voice. It had taken him minutes to get his armour and leave Voss. Returning from Midvinter the day before, once ice ball was bad enough, but now he was en-route to another. Yes, he had logged where he was going for the sake of it, he wasn’t ashamed or worried anymore about what he did in the eyes of those who “commanded” him. He was doing what he promised – saving a friend in need.

1559689-600px_ilum_eaw2.jpg
”Taeli if you can hear me, you just hold on. I’m coming.”

It had taken a while to get to the Ilum system in the Unknown Regions, but he got there. In that time he had plenty to think about, more so looking over the coordinates to follow of Taeli’s last known location and what he may find there – nothing more than brutes with guns who sadly got the upper hand. Well, the tables were going to be turned.

Coming out of hyperspace, Connor pushed the yoke of the trusty ship to sweep in towards the icy white planet and follow the breadcrumbs that would lead to Taeli. He smiled as the planet raced towards him. He was starting to get pretty good at saving those Raaf sisters.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

Several days later, and Taeli was sitting in her cell ... and was absolutely fuming inside. The mercs and pirates had been rather harsh on her, but they still didn't know she was a Force user. They had accused her of being a spy, but when she had finally woken up and started to be interrogated, she had simply told them her name was Raeli Tae and that she was an archaeologist interested in the Gree artifacts on the world.

There may have been some snarky comments mixed in that got her a slap or a dash of freezing water, but so far, none of them had tried anything else beyond usual interrogation techniques. She had a feeling the other stuff was coming though, she had seen some looks at her and knew it was only a matter of time before whoever was leading this outfit decided to let his boys have a go at breaking her. That would have been fine by her, not the whole thing about the boys coming after her, but just the interrogation ... until she had seen one pirate just casually break an artifact that was over 26,000 years old. That had gotten her blood boiling, but what was the tipping point for her was how nonchalant the rest of these ruffians had reacted. The leader had been a little miffed, but then he had done nothing to reprimand and proceeded to befoul something even older.

Taeli was not a happy camper to say the least, but she was hiding well ... and hiding that she had already freed herself of the durasteel cuffs they had been using. Biding her time now and ... that's when she sensed him. He had come after all. Using her presence like a beacon, she reached out to Connor and sensed ... well she had known this might be coming once she gave him that book on the Potentium. Deep down ... she knew it was his path ... and deep down, she knew the goody goody act was probably about to be up. These pirates and mercs needed to pay dearly for what they had damaged already.
 
Pushing harder to take the ship down faster to the surface, following the coordinates that would at least allow Connor to then find these vagrants and their operations, he reached out with the Force to find Taeli; there she was. He aura strong, and fuelled with passion and resilience. She was angry, and she was hurting but he couldn’t quite tell why.

The lower he came, the higher the snow kicked up around the thrust of his engine trail left behind. Slowing his ascent and his general speed, Connor could see a large dual crane in the distance, an old mining crane used for drilling and extraction. Nice set up they had. What better way to make an entrance. Nobody would get far enough to call for help before this whole thing was over.

Connor held the E-wing in a hovering position a good distance from the crane and looked over to it and saw it within his grasp. He bore his eyes into it, and twisted his hand to reach out with the Force around him and feel that satisfying buckle of metal, the whine of cable being pulled taught and the rock crumbling below the foundations.

He closed his eyes and maintained his grip, holding it tight until he felt it go. Looking out again, the crane let out a monstrous roar as it started to topple down to whatever was below. Perfect distraction. Flipping the cockpit switch, Connor quickly took the E-wing down to the plain below him, landing gear crunching into the ice and frosty air flowing to where he sat. He pulled himself up and over as he had done a thousand times before to slide onto the dry snow and, waving his hand back to close the cockpit hatch, made for the plume of dirt and grey smoke that had kicked up from the crane collapsing over.

Knock knock Miss Raaf. Where are you, are you safe?

He kept low and raced around the outskirt, keeping the crane wreck in his sights as he came to see the mining operation; a number of vehicles, stacks of crates and drums, a number of tents, tool crates and an excavated mine itself leading down into a hollowed out section of the planet. Quite the operation, but whatever these pirates were digging for, it was effectively all over now he had found them.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"Well Miss Tae, my patience with you has worn itself out," her interrogator said, coming into her cell again. Her eyes immediately went to thing he was picking his teeth with, and she could just feel her annoyance and anger growing. He was using a Gree artifact as a toothpick... "You clearly are something else than just some archaeologist..." and he was about to continue when a horrible crunching sound came from outside the makeshift prison.

"What the hell was that?!" the interrogator yelled into his comlink, turning his back to his prisoner.

"The crane just crashed, sir," a voice replied, but that wasn't the one Taeli was focusing on. No, she was smiling as she heard words in her head.

Knock knock Miss Raaf. Where are you, are you safe?

'Well I'm glad you got my message, these pirates need to PAY DEARLY FOR BEFOULING THESE GREE ARTIFACTS!' she mentally shouted, but she kept that smile on her face. As the commander of the pirates kept yelling orders, she saw her opportunity. 'I'm in one of their makeshift buildings, I think, or I'm down in their excavation zone. They didn't bind me properly, but I have no weapon besides the Force. I'll keep my presence open for you to find me.'

With that thought, she turned her attention back to the pirate commander as he finished yelling. Well, it was now or never ... and she would ask for forgiveness later. Right now ... she shot forward and wrapped the links of her cuff around the man's neck, using the Force to augment her strength. The pirate tried to fight her off, backing into the wall and making her go oof, but she kept the cuffs tightly around his neck, choking him.

"You all are going to pay for desecrating these artifacts in the way you have," she whispered in her ear, and between the choking and the dying, the man caught the cold anger in her voice. Sith used a hot anger to fuel them, but Taeli was just cold now, her violet eyes as hard as gemstones as she twisted her hands and the man dropped to the ground.
 
Connor was crouched behind a stack of fuel drums, noting a large charred area of ground that still smelt like burning oil and metal. Looking over the bodies coming from the tents, more casually than those from the mines, probably grunts working for a few credits, Connor fingered his lightsaber hilt and rolled his tongue across his lip.

Eyes darting to the mine itself, Connor heard the words from Taeli inside his head and nodded. They wouldn’t keep one such as her outside, they’d wall her in. So with that, he moved fast and precise around the perimeter, using crates and drums to keep himself hidden with the darkness of his armour blending well.

Peering over the top of a olive green crate, he twisted his hand whilst looking at the buckled crane and pushed the top of it with the Force, effectively tipping it back over on itself, the lumbering broken metal groaning as it rocked backwards, crashing completely down into the ground with a thud. It was enough to keep their attention, and he moved quickly and confidently towards the mine.

The darkness swallowed him up with only a few makeshift lights running off a generator leading down the cold dirt track that had been laid to carry carts up and down. This was a good set-up, so something was worth finding here, and probably Taeli had been ambushed with her love of history.

A sickening noise was coming ahead, and Connor sidestepped down into the main belly of the dig to see Taeli atop a collapsing man, draining the life out of him with deathly precision. The Jedi watched her, taking in the cold surroundings with a number of passageways leading into the surface and an array of crates and carts full of earth.

”Well, looks like you didn’t need my help after all Miss Raaf.”

He smiled as he stood there, shouts coming from up behind him on the surface.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"I figured we could use a head start in dealing with this filth," she said, getting off the man and using the Force to break the cuffs off. "Plus, I always enjoy your company. I see you decided to embrace the Potentium after all ... that sort of confidence suits you."

Cracking her neck and stretching, she could hear the sounds of the enemy coming closer and a voice calling repeatedly over the comlink to the commander. Picking up the comlink, her voice as cold as the ice and snow outside, she responded by saying, "I'm sorry, your commander is indisposed. I liked you Sully, so I'll kill you last, how does that sound?"

Dropping the comlink, she looked at Connor and tilted her head slightly. She did like that new confidence, even if he was bleeding both sides of the Force in his aura even more. At least he wasn't feeling tortured anymore, but she was curious about several things now. Some things must have happened since Mustafar.

"Guess we will need some time to catch up after," she said.
 
”Indeed we must. But, first, sorry, can you just stand back a moment?”

Connor gave a little shooing motion towards her as he backed up towards the wall of the dig, beside the cart track on the ground and the ramp leading to the surface. Turning his head, he heard the nervous chatter and faint whine of blaster guns charging up for a shot as two grunts were coming down to silence the woman they kept captive.

As he heard their feet crunch down to the gravel off the track, Connor span around in front of them and parted his hands, sending each thug into the opposite dirt wall with a crunch, blasters clattering down followed by their bodies and groans.

Stepping forward, Connor took one by the trouser leg and dragged him down into the dig and over towards Taeli, a nice trail of dirt paved by the groaning brute. Stepping aside, he gestured to the man and folded his arms.

”Care to find out what they’re doing here?”

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"With pleasure," she said, her hand flicking out to lift the man in the Force. "So I'm going to ask nicely, why is your group here excavating Gree artifacts?"

"Ain't tellin'" the man grumbled, and Taeli rolled her eyes. Her focus went to the man's leg and he yelled in pain as she broke all the bones in his foot. Honestly, these people didn't realize just how much trouble they were in. While she was a Jedi, these people had captured her, essentially tortured her for a bit, and were on the cusp of making her into a toy or trying to at least. There was no mercy in those violet eyes.

"Once again, why are you here?" she asked, her gaze glancing over to where Connor was standing. She wasn't sure what he was thinking about this display, but if she was honest with herself, she had a feeling he was enjoying it just a bit.

"Go suck space," the man replied, his voice strained in pain. Another thought and the man screamed as she broke his right leg bones, one of them actually coming through in a compound fracture.

"Why are you here?" she repeated.

"I ... can't say ... I'll be killed," the man gasped.

"You think you're all getting out of this in one piece still?" she said, actually a bit amused by the man's reply ... before she broke his other foot.

"We were hired by the Sith to find something here! I swear!" the man yelled, finally answering her. Well, that made things so much easier now too. "I don't know what we were looking for! Some sort of ancient technology! Please, just stop!"

"I thank you for the answer," she said, smiling until that smile turned cold. "Unfortunately, I'm not one to spare a Sith employee."

The man gave one last startled gasp before ice formed across his body as she slowed his molecules down and froze the water in his body. Dropping the body to the ground, she looked over at Connor.

"I think we need to dismantle this operation."
 
Connor stood still and silent, watching the interrogation, and felt a great sense of control radiating from Taeli and fear from the grunt. As the first breaks came, he winced slightly. Then came the next, a total break of the right leg, which made Connor wince for genuine as she showed little mercy.

This was a new side to Taeli, but then, he knew what she was like and how she reacted when pushed. A punch in the nose to the one she cared about, so a broken leg to someone she despised was fair.

He caught her eye, and he nodded gently, and sighed slowly as she performed another break. This was nasty work from a Raaf. Taking in the garbled words of the thug, it seemed to be a much larger operation than just digging for riches to sell on the market. The Sith were involved. What a surprise.

Letting her drop the final threat, he half-expected him to drop into some Force-induced state of unconsciousness, but with her ironic icy tone, came a rather icy end which made Connor stare in disbelief at what went on – total molecular freezing from the inside out. He dropped; hard and dead.

For a second, Connor looked at the haunting frozen look of fear in the man’s face before meeting Taeli’s gaze once more as she was totally composed.

”Oh, please teach me how to do that.”

Not knowing what that was, he took her arm and led her to the track, leading up the ramp to the outside.

”What the hell was that anyway? A bit…ruthless coming from you wasn’t it?”

He smiled teasingly as he turned, wafting his hand as he walked backwards, pulling chunks of the earth out of the wall from the pit to weaken the structure of the dig they could collapse inwards once done on the surface – or, rather, drop the remains of the crane onto it and watch it collapse in a nice show of snow and rock and ice and metal.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"You assumed that just because I embraced the light side, and talk about it like its a great thing, that I'm like my sister in every way," she replied, not even casting a second glance at the man she had frozen. "And that was a Force technique known as cryokinesis, slow the molecules of something and it eventually will freeze over. I could make ice weapons if I wanted to."

She didn't relish doing that, but there was that cold and distant professionalism when she spoke about it. If anything, she was sure her actions just then probably reminded him of another time, before they had really known each other. Flicking her hand, she helped him weaken the structure of the dig as they went towards the outside.

"Halt!" a mercenary yelled, stun bolts flying from his rifle. She neatly sidestepped his attack and the man fell to the ground as two ice spears froze into existence and took him through the chest. Again, just cold detachment from the actions. She had taught that harnessing emotions, but not letting them control you, was necessary for not falling into the dark side versus using it. That really applied to all techniques in the Force, love helped her fuel the light after all.

"Sorry that you aren't getting too much action yet, I suspect once we get outside that's going to change," she said, using the Force to crush the joint in a metal support structure behind them.
 
Walking over the impaled body of the Rodian, Connor twisted his head to look at the ice spears that would simply melt away. The element at its most deadliest. Listening to her, he nodded and took in her words – cryokinesis was something to remember.

Pushing his hands upwards, as if launching invisible discs up into the hard rock above them, he pushed large spherical holes as they went, dirt spitting down onto the track in a nice rhythm as the whole dig was gradually getting that little bit weaker with less support to hold against one mighty bang.

He heard noise from outside as they had already turned up the track to face the white sky that could be seen first. Walking up, they came back into the light of the outside base camp to face an expected semi-circle of guards, and a nasty looked laser canon mounted on a digger pointing at them.

”Move and you’re dead – we have a bonus waiting if we capture Jedi!”

He ignored the over enthusiastic grunt with the plasma rifle. Connor squinted and raised his hands a little, leaning in slightly to Taeli.

”I’ll go left.”

With a playful nod, Connor held his hands up, slowly curling his fingers into balled fists and pushed down hard with his boot to charge to his left, shoulder barging into the mindless oaf not paying attention to someone he should have been. The force of impact sent the youth flying back into the snow with a groan, and spinning on his heel, pulled his lightsaber hilt from his side and activated the blade in one fluid motion, already heading to take down the next gunman as all hell seemed to break loose around them.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
"Guess I'll go right," she said, smiling at Connor pleasantly. And then he charged at the pirates, shouldering a man into a snowdrift. Blaster bolts started flying and she took off to the right, as graceful as a dancer. A Chagrian man tried to stab her with a vibroblade, but she slid right past him, broke his grip on the blade and he suddenly was gurgling into the snow as she slid his own blade across his throat.

"Get them!" the man on the laser cannon yelled, opening fire. "Kill them!"

Dancing, the borrowed blade flashing out to either kill or incapacitate, Taeli dropped it and threw herself into a roll to avoid the laser cannon fire. Another Rodian grinned at her, at least she thought it was him grinning, as he leveled his blaster at her. Big mistake, she thought, her hands shooting out to twist the rifle from his hands before a shot could get off, spinning him into a head lock and directly into the path of several blaster bolts.

The man on the cannon screamed as from her free hand, green electricity arced from it to consume him and his digger. Some down, more to go.

'Having fun yet?' she thought at Connor.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
Spinning out to take cover behind a small one-man digger, Connor peered around the other side at the loud crack and flash of green energy coming from Taeli towards the cannon. Her voice came into his head once more as the earth spat up around him from blaster fire, forcing his hand to get up quickly and deflect the next volley with his blade.

The gunman was a burly female, and after the third shot, lost her arm with a deflected fourth.

"Oh I love a Raaf rescue...” Connor spoke, Force pushing the woman over to bleed out, ”...nothing else I'd rather do!”

He ran over towards the steaming digger Taeli had assaulted and jumped up onto the warm platform with the canon, swiftly spinning on the axis to launch a rapid burst of red bolts across the site to keep any and all stragglers down. He kept his eyes forward but turned his head, shouting over the noise.

”Having fun yourself?”

A spike in the Force attracted him, turning his attention to a ridge on their left, above the dig site - two hoversleds skidded over the snow. He pointed with his hand for her take care of.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"That would be one word for it," she shouted back, freeing up both hands to focus on the approaching hoversleds. Two sleds, most likely six men on each ... a scouting party or the sentry patrols for the camp. Her eyes flickered to the downed crane, perfect. The shuddering and creaking of metal was the only warning those on the hoversleds had before several beams tore of the crane and were launched at them.

One sled skidded to avoid the debris, but the other wasn't so lucky and came to a halt, flames leaping out of it. Her senses tingled and she swept her hand and two men that had avoided Connor's fire were thrown against the side of a shipping container ... repeatedly. She wasn't sure if they were dead or just unconscious, but she turned her attention to the six new arrivals. One cried out as he froze in place, the water around him and in him turned to ice.

"How many more do you think?" she asked, pulling a blaster rifle to her and shooting a burly Nikto merc three times in the chest.
 
With an exhilarating grin, not being able to let out so much against those who preyed on people like Taeli in a long time, Connor exhaled loudly and leaned on the cannon as he watched the once peaceful Jedi unleash a whole array of destruction and death on the mercs and pirates who didn't stand a chance.

Shaking his head at the sight before him, they fell from blaster bolts, burnt from fire, froze from ice and succumbed to the Force she emitted as much as breathing.

"How many more? Not many - this can't be a huge operation and I doubt they expected two Jedi to tear the place up.”

He jumped down onto the icy ground and walked over amidst a few groaning bodies and other dead ones to stand beside Taeli as she took down the second of the six new arrivals.

"Either way I suggest we get out of here and quick - room in my E-wing for one more.”

He held his lightsaber out and moved before her, deflecting a few blaster bolts back towards the overturned sled that was the barrier between the thugs.

"Go - quickly - but get a barrel down into that shaft for me, roll it down the track! And then run.”

Focusing his attention to the others, he retreated gradually, buying time as they started to moved forward in unison; cover, fire, cover, fire.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"Are you giving me orders?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice now as another blaster bolt screamed through the air to strike a merc who tried to poke his head out of cover. He wouldn't be getting up again. Regardless, his suggestion was a good one and she quickly rolled several barrels down into the tunnel with the Force.

Green sparks flew from her fingers to electrify the cover the enemy was using, just enough power to stun anyone who actually was touching the sled. Of course, she wasn't sure what species the mercs were or their body weight and conductivity, so it might have done more and it might have done less.

"You know my ship is at the old Jedi temple here," she continued saying, almost conversationally. It was that dispassionate and professional detachment from the chaos around them reasserting itself again. "I'll take the ride back there sure."
 
Seeing the barrels of oil or whatever fuel they had stored roll into the tunnel, Connor started back the way he had come, towards the munitions that were dangerously close to the fire-fight. Killing his saber and crouching down, he lifted a heavy live green trunk to find explosives for the mine – detonators, sticks of dynamite and pipe-bombs. Eyes scanning the weapons, he reached in and took two detonators.

Glancing back to see Taeli still fighting the fight, he indicate to the rift he had come over and around and pointed to it, shouting his order.

"Get up and over there – you’ll see it in the distance hopefully in one piece!”

And without waiting, he rolled out and thumbed both detonators at once and shot out his hands to launch them like mini projectiles towards and into the tunnel of the internal mine. He waited, hearing the hiss of blaster fire and shouts coming closer, and then he felt the shockwave first from the first blast blowing a hole in the side of the dig. It was then he stumbled back and ran.

probotpod5.jpg
The second and third violent explosions from the mine came next, loud and wild, belching out fire and black smoke instantly form the shaft opening that engulfed those poor fools milling around eager to get back down to their prize. Connor stumbled over again, the ground shaking beneath him as the explosion ripped through the terrain and imploded the dig-site in on itself. Screams sounded quickly, and then the noise of fireballs silenced them.

A groan of metal sounded as the crane collapsed down into the shaft, fire and smoke rising into the air; debris and ash flying down to the ground, hitting the floor and snow with a sizzle. Connor didn’t dare look back, he didn’t want to see if the ground was caving in behind him with any other dig sites he had just destroyed, so he kept moving, up with Taeli in the distance on the snow rift and didn’t stop until he reached her. Taking a thankful gasp, he span around in the snow to see what they had done.

It was an awesome, destructive mess.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Connor Harrison"]

"Again with the pushy orders," Taeli laughed, but she heeded it anyways. Doing a graceful back flip, she landed near the rift and darted up it. She would have to come back herself, with her own team, to actually excavate the site to find what they were looking for. The pirates clearly didn't know what they were doing, but at least they had put the artifacts they did recover into blastproof containers so those shouldn't get damaged.

Looking back as Connor reached the crest of the hill, she watched the explosion take out the entire site, debris and fire filling the sky. Smoke billowed from the camp, the mine having completely collapsed in on itself. The mercs and pirates had most likely not survived, or those that were injured would probably not survive the night. Ilum was rather cold after all.

"So ... I should say again thanks for getting my message," Taeli said. "How far is your ship, because I need to get back to mine and we need to have a bit of chat ... and before I forget ..."

She came over and gave him a brief hug and kiss on the cheek to show her appreciation before gesturing for him to lead the way to his E-Wing.
 
Licking his top lip and nodding in approval of their handwork, the Jedi turned to face Taeli at her question and nodded to the, what appeared to be, far distant horizon.

"Minutes that way, down below these rifts – sticks out like a sore thumb so you can’t miss it, but you can’t see it from here. Nobody’s here for many miles, and with your message I didn’t have time to find a decent docking pad.”

Receiving her kiss on the cheek and hug, Connor’s lip curled into a smile on one side and then broke on both. Felt quite good to feel appreciated again. He held his hand behind her back and gestured forward as he started the walk along the soft snow.

"This way – and you’re welcome.”

The trusty ship soon came into view, and they had to be careful on the slope down – ice and snow and rock wasn’t the best mix. However, it didn’t take long for Connor to help Taeli down and then up onto the wing to get comfortable in the seat behind him, while he himself made it over to the cockpit and secured his hatch.

"Direct me, and we’ll be there in no time.”

He smiled again at the thought of how she must have felt in his “relic” with him at the controls.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 

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