It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

[Lord Gaius]

"My life does not revolve around comfort. Still… it was, as I've heard humans say, a 'close shave'." Hasjo Hallu said to the man, Lysle Rigger. The Nautolan was covered in scratches from the vicious claws of a Nexu. His once regal Jedi attire was torn to shreds. His hands and feet were cuffed by powerful chains, to make matters worse, the two chains were interconnected in a fashion that loosely 'hog-tied' him. The human gave him a particular raised brow, surprised. "You're still alive?" Lysle asked of him "Well then, wish me luck."
"May the Force be with you" Hasjo replied, bowing his head in respect.
"Bah, that talk isn't going to get me anywhere" Lysle spat. The renown smuggler of the Inner Rim smoothed his slick black hair back, awaiting his fate at the hands of the powerful Hutt clan. He readjusted his leather jerkin and entered through the rusted archway to the cheers of a roaring crowd. The gate slammed shut behind him. Hasjo had a feeling it would be the last time he'd see that man, but not for the fact he would die. No, the man had a card up his sleeve.

In the past month Hasjo had been here, a captive of the Hutt crime lords. He had grown a bond with the man named Lysle, an unlikely one at that. Lysle was well known on Coruscant and throughout the Inner Rim. He had previously owned an immense crime network of smugglers, bounty hunters and slicers. It collapsed when his daughter, the infamous Julianna Rigger, had usurped his power. He was forced to flee to the Outer Territories in hopes that his old allies, the Hutts, would provide him sanctuary. He had been wrong, too wrong. Now there he was, entering an arena where he would fight for his life - or die. Hasjo meditated on these thoughts, he had been tracking Lysle down for many a month and when he finally found him. Well, he was in no position to arrest him. He waddled over to the other side of the room, weary from his days of starvation, dehydration and sleepless nights. The Force was his only ally here.

When he was first captured, they gave him the option to become the Hutt's slave. He had declined, and so they sent him down into the dungeons to die. When they had visitors, he was forced to fight. Regardless of the chains he wore. Through sheer luck and brilliant timing in combat, he had survived this far. Lysle was luckier. He wasn't Force sensitive and so they didn't chain him. Somehow the man would come out without any bruises, scratches or scars. Hasjo heard the crowd suddenly scream in anger. There was no thump signifying the death of a great beast. He heard someone speak "He's escaping! Stop him!" Hours passed, and Lysle never returned. Nor was he dead, he could feel it. Hasjo smiled.

 

[Cambria Zadira]

Cambria Zadira sipped on an iced tea just as she had almost to the day two months ago. The Rutian Twi'lek even sat at the same table at the same outdoor cafe across from the same docking bay that she's seen a green Nautolan sunning himself, who turned out to be a Jedi Knight. And not just any Jedi Knight, but one from the Silver Order. That Silver Jedi, one [member="Hasjo Hallu"], had in the end helped her to free some young girls from slavers that Cambria had tracked down who were going to sell them to a local Crime Lord, Zoora the Hutt, who had a pleasure palace just on the outskirts of Mos Eisely. This was Confederacy space and the CIS were at odds with this particular Hutt wanting to shut down his slaving organization. That is why the Rogue Knight had been working with the local authorities to see if she could help out in that regard.

The blue-skinned Twi'lek had just raised the glass to her lips anticipating the sweet, refreshing taste of the cold drink to pass her taste buds when all of a sudden her dander sense spiked, but it was too late as a dark-haired man came crashing into her table and the iced tea by-passed her lips and spilled down the front of her leaving the two piece outfit she was wearing soaked as the glass had been full.

"Really?! Now I am going to be all sticky sweet in this heat!" Cambria said twitching her lekku in a flustered way at the man as she patted her wet blue-hued skin down with a napkin, then she calmed herself and leaned over to help the human male up. "What or better who are you running from, mister? You look as if you've had a rough go of it lately?" she asked with a bit of compassion and concern in her accented voice… Well that was until Bri noticed a blue gemstone with a star in the middle of it laying on the ground next to him that had fallen out of his pocket. It was the very warming crystal she'd given to Hasjo before they parted ways.

​"Where did you get this? I need to know," the Rogue Knight asked more deliberately this time after picking it up and rolling the large sapphire-looking gem around on her fingertips. The man would have seen her sliver hilted lightsaber hanging from her utility belt slung low on her shapely hips by now and know she wasn't going to wait too long for a truthful answer.

 

[Lord Gaius]

The pump of his legs was all that was on his mind. Faster and faster. He felt truly alive. Lysle Rigger leapt through stalls and dived under platforms. The bounty hunters were losing him, and fast. He craned his neck back, looking to his pursuers now far behind but still giving chase. Suddenly his foot snapped onto something. The wind was blown out of him as a table collided with his stomach. He hurtled forward and slammed against the ground. He was quickly regaining himself before the bounty hunters could catch him when a woman spoke. "What or better who are you running from, mister? You look as if you've had a rough go of it lately?"
"I got no time to chat, love" Lysle said, reaching down for the warming crystal, but was stopped when she snatched it up first.
​"Where did you get this? I need to know," [member="Cambria Zadira"] asked.
He was about to be a smart-ass with her and get on his way, that was, until he saw the hilt at her hip. He gave her the benefit of the doubt. He owed Hasjo a life debt, and perhaps he could pay it off now and forget the man ever existed. He gave a silent prayer that she wasn't a Sith, and rather a Jedi, and answered "Look, some bloke gave it to me. We've been sitting in Zoora's palace for a month now. He's still there, don't know how long he's going to be alive for. They got him chained up like an animal, but he fights like one too I'll give him that." He pointed to the gem and said "Keep it, ain't worth jack to me." He proceeded to break into a fast sprint, he was more agile than he looked. A battalion of bounty hunters close behind on his tail, shooting their blasters at him. Lysle disappeared into a landing pad and no sooner had he disappeared, that a ship began to roar. Taking off, blaster fire could be seen striking the ship fruitlessly. The ship began to spin around, aiming into the skies above. Then it vanished, into Hyperspace. The rogue had gotten away. Alive, and with a stolen ship.

Meanwhile, elsewhere. . .

"Hasjo Hallu" the announcer commented with a sarcastic enthusiasm. The Nautolan shuffled himself into the arena. Gazing up he saw the crowd of a hundred watching him. It wasn't a large crowd, filled only with cutthroats and gamblers. The arena was different, in only two hours they had fitted a tightly sealed cage over his head so that he couldn't escape. He gave a half-grin, knowing too well the athletic man had scaled the walls and fled straight through that crowd. But now they had prevented Hasjo from doing the same. Though in a strange and unlikely turn of events. A metal pole with a clasping hook came through the cage and in it's grasp was his lightsaber. It released it, allowing Hasjo to quickly ignite the furious cerulean plasma and cut through his chains. Clearly, whatever he was facing, they were confident that even with his blade he wouldn't survive. The opposing gate began to open with a slow grind, and out from the field came a squadron of twelve droids. Electrostaffs ignited.

 

[Cambria Zadira]

Cambria stared at the gemstone in the palm of her hand for a long moment as what the man told her resonated deep within her, then the Twi'lek placed it safely away in a pouch on her utility belt where it had been kept before giving it [member="Hasjo Hallu"]. Bri knew what she must do as he would do the same for her…

Grabbing her brown hooded cloak off the back of the chair she had been sitting on, Cambria quickly slipped it on, then jumped onto her speeder bike and took off for Zoora the Hutt's pleasure palace to help her fellow Jedi, yes down deep she was a Jedi still, and he was her friend, or at least to her he was.

Once the Twi'lek Knight got there, she made her way to where all the noise seemed to be coming from; the arena. And low and behold there was the Nautolan Silver Jedi looking worse for wear but still alive right smack dab in the middle of the caged arena with a dozen Magna Guards coming at him.

// Show off… You know I can not let you have all the fun. // Bri sent Hasjo through the Force just before another cerulean blade came to life on the back side of the droids with the usual snap hiss preceding the hum of a lightsaber grating against an electrostaff, then another.

 

[Lord Gaius]

Hasjo's concentration broke momentarily, he heard something deep within his mind, yet all around him. Though he was the only one to hear those words. His strength of stance in Form I faltered momentarily. The clarity of his angles as he chose lines of engagement wavered. He was distracted for only the briefest of moments by the familiar tone. It was [member="Cambria Zadira"]. He didn't know she was here. Suddenly the twelve magnaguards were upon him. There was something different about his hilt this time. It wasn't the same blade. It was significantly longer, and he was holding it with two hands now. He threw himself against them, and the hilt revealed itself to all. A second blade, only ever so slightly shorter than the other, burst to life with a crackle and hiss. It was a lightsaber pike. He had been trained in the art form as a Jedi Temple Guard by his friend, Sirak.

Hasjo's chaotic, unpredictable approach had given the Nautolan an advantage against the machines. His cerulean lightsaber blade was here, there, everywhere: unpredictable, irresistible. A droid grabbed his head-tresses. He rode the magnaguards yanking motion instead of fighting it, slipping between the tendrils, the Nautolan's sense of timing faster and more precise than common sense itself. Hasjo accelerated into a blur of motion complex and rapid enough to baffle some audience members. He was astonishingly aggressive and intuitive in his style. There was a sudden simple truth as he became surrounded by his foes. Hasjo knew that Form I placed him in greater jeopardy, but his sense of duty made it worthwhile.

He became a living, martial hurricane, his body moving in two and three directions at once, joints flexing, unlimited by human vertebral restraints. Who he touched went down. And those who went down, stayed down. His attack was absolute fluidity, one motion flowing into the next, without a wasted effort. He breathed deeply. Fire burned his veins as his twin hearts went slightly out of rhythm with each other. This was the moment that he lived for. Like swimming the surface during one of Glee Anselm’s mammoth hurricanes, or the practice of Form I. It was the storm itself that was the test, the challenge to see if he could maintain his balance in the whirlwhind. Never had he fallen. One day he would, as all mortals did. But not today, he focused. Not today.

The nautolan's blade was a cyclone of blazing blue light. Resistant to the energy outpourings of a lightsaber, the phrik alloy staffs were potent weapons, but like any weapon they needed to find their target, and Hasjo simply wasn't allowing that. In moves a Twi'lek dancer might envy, he spun around the guards, claiming a limb from both with each rotation: left legs, right arms, right legs. The nautolan was pure aggression. His face narrowed to a fighting grimace, spitting curses in strange languages, moving his torso with a boneless agility that seemed impossible for any vertebrae. A sudden shift in the storm occurred. The dwindling numbers closing in on him. Something struck him, and he went down. Hard.

 

[Cambria Zadira]

With a rhythmic flow using the powerful Djem So accompanied by a flare of Ataru, the blue-skinned Twi'lek Knight battled her way through the mass of Magna Guards towards her Silver Jedi friend [member="Hasjo Hallu"], occasionally using a Force push here and a Force kick there until she could see the green amphibian in his own lightsaber whirl before her. Then it happened… Hasjo was struck by an electrostaff and went down hard, his alien body twitching from the electrical shock.

Cambria quickly stepped forward and dispatched the last Magna Guard in a dutiful manner, then dropped to one knee to check on the Nautolan Jedi while keeping her cerulean blade still activated and held upright in a guard position. She sent a quick wave of healing Force energy to her friend through a compassionate touch of her petite hand on his chest, then golden eyes peered across the arena to where three Droidekas rolled in through the gate. Gods how she hated those things.

"Hasjo… We have more company," Bri said patting his shoulder calmly yet deliberately, then stood in an opening Shien stance between the injured Silver Knight and the Destroyers ready to face down the next challenge.

 

[Lord Gaius]

"Hasjo… We have more company," [member="Cambria Zadira"] said.
He began to stand, his muscles suddenly ached and burned with a fire he couldn't recall in many years. He curled his hands around his lightsaber piked and reignited the plasma with a burst of cerulean and a hiss. He stood and retained his stance. "Thank you" he lipped wordlessly to Cambria. He stepped forward as the droids shields ignited. He began to twirl his blade. He was performing the technique of Su. A technique that Hasjo had mastered. Faster and faster the hilt spun in his hands, becoming a whirlpool of cerulean plasma as the blue light became a circular haze before him. It became such a speed that no non-force user could keep track of the lightsaber. His muscles were working hard to keep up the pace, his face contorted into complete and utter concentration. The droids opened fire, and every one of their blaster shots snapped against his blade. Redirecting back against their own shields. Their rapid fire suddenly became their own enemy. They were being pelted by their own blaster fire, until their shields dropped. Hasjo released a primal roar, throwing his lightsaber. He reached out with the force, guiding it as it spun horizontally. It sliced straight through two, before suddenly shooting back into the Nautolans hand.

 

[Cambria Zadira]

Just as the Droidekas' generator shields came up their rapid-fire blaster bolts began spraying the two Jedi now standing in the middle of the caged arena. Cambria gave a quick glance over her right shoulder to [member="Hasjo Hallu"] who seemed to have gotten his second wind as he began to twirl his cerulean colored lightsaber blade in his preferred form of Su. The Nautolan Knight appeared to be concentrating on taking out the two Destroyers to his right so Cambria went for the one on the far left.

The blue-skinned Twi'lek charged at the Destroyer aggressively, redirecting the blaster bolts off her own cerulean colored lightsaber blade with precision right back at the roller droid with a plan in mind of how to get out of this situation. Her efforts paid off as the shield generator soon became overwhelmed and collapsed. A couple of more nicely placed shots disabled the roller from moving, then Cambria propelled herself up high and forward, flipping over the top of the Droideka and a landing on it's back. The way the droid tried to disengage her from it's shell one would think the Twi'lek was riding a bull for an eight second ride.

Wrangling its still firing guns around so they pointed at a weak spot in an outside wall of the arena, a hole was blasted wide open and their escape route provided. Cambria took her blade and drove it downward into the brain to finish off the Destroyer, then the Twi'lek called to Hasjo in the Force while jumping off her now dead roller droid and landed effortlessly into a full-on run for the opening. Once there she did not hesitate and slipped through to the outside of Zoora the Hutt's palace. Meanwhile, a button had been pushed on her wrist chrono activating her R9 unit to bring her slaved-ship to their location for a quick getaway, or least that was her plan.

 

[Lord Gaius]

Hasjo was close behind Cambria as he fled from the palace. The adrenaline that had been pumping through his veins, was slowly dissipating from his system. The blood from his previous battle soaked his clothes. His controlled breathing became rapid, and his twin hearts synced in a furious beating drum that with every beat, felt like a hammer to his skull. He gritted his teeth against the migraine. In the hot sun, he truly felt like a fish out of water, requiring hydration. The adrenaline had aided his body in the fight, but it was no longer present. He wanted to shout, to call to her to wait for him. But he couldn't. He pushed onward, beyond his physical limits. As he had during his training with Master Ru.

@[member="Cambria Zadira"]

 

[Cambria Zadira]

Cambria waved towards her ship, an A-24 Sleuth, as she knew Geenine would spot her as the scout vessel came in over a sand dune, then the Twi'lek turned to see where [member="Hasjo Hallu"] was; his normally bright aura fading fast in the Force. She went back to help him make it to the ship that had landed nearby. The Nautolan was in bad shape.

Once inside, Cambria had her R9 unit take off immediately while she got Hasjo situated on the one bunk that doubled as a med-bed on the small ship. Cambria did what she could for his obvious wounds placing bacta patches on them, then started an IV to replenish his fluids as the amphibian was severely dehydrated.

"Tell me where I should take you before I help you into a healing trance, Hasjo?" she said with both compassion and concern noted between her tone of voice and twitches of her lekku draped over her shoulder for her injured friend laying there.

 

[Lord Gaius]

Hasjo climbed into the bowels of the ship and was laid upon a bed. He looked over to Cambria as she set to work in aiding him. [member="Cambria Zadira"] asked "Tell me where I should take you before I help you into a healing trance, Hasjo?"
He felt the familiar jostling of a ship as it began to launch. The propulsion drives loud in the air as the vehicle rattled in take-off. He called her R9 unit over, as the droid came around, he reached over with a single hand. His long fingernail tapped at various buttons on the droid, and a hologram appeared to life. It was a map of the galaxy. Hasjo pointed to a distant and isolated star system in the Outer Territories, far from Tatooine. The system expanded to reveal a planet, coordinates detailing the location. The Nautolan said "Voss." He rolled back, the R9 unit knowing where to go. His lips parted as he spoke quietly to her, disappointed with his fight against the Magnaguards "I should have gone closer to the edge. Released myself into the Force, become more unpredictable. More random."

 

[Cambria Zadira]

Cambria listened and watched attentively as [member="Hasjo Hallu"] punched in the coordinates to his desired destination, which she assumed was where the Silver Jedi Order was located as he was a member and that would be his home.

The Twi'lek grabbed a blanket out of the nearby cabinet as Geenine rolled away to get the nav computer ready to make the jump to hyperspace now that they knew were to go. She spread the blanket over the Nautolan, then placed a comforting hand upon his arm after he spoke.

"Sometimes we must decide whether to stand and fight or live to fight another day. The choice we made today was right for the situation. You are a Jedi Guardian as I am. One day we will need to do as you wish you had, but that was not today. Now… Rest, my friend," Bri smiled softly using a simple Mind Trick with a subtle wave of her petite hand as she gently nudged the Silver Knight into a healing trance.

After Hasjo was deep within the trance, Cambria slipped into the pilot's seat just in time to pull the hyperdrive lever to send the Star Dancer into hyperspace. The space journey from Tatooine to Voss would take approximately two days as it was from one end of the Outer Rim to the other. When they were within a few hours, she would help to bring her friend out of his healing trance naturally as if he was awaking from a nice sleep.

In the meantime, Cambria looked up as much information as she could on Voss to keep herself occupied during the trip between meditative sessions.