Lanteeb Grand Prix

[Dunames Lopez]

Dunames was back from a business trip into Mandalorian Empire territory, where Star Tours attempted to get the Mandalorian Empire to approve Dubrillion and Cademimu as part of the Beaches of the Dark Side line of vacation packages. Dunames has started to live a lot more dangerously as of late and, even though she is, by and large, a capable pilot that can fly on a wide range of ships, ranging from the TIE Reaver up to cruiser-sized, as a podracer pilot, she was an unknown quantity. Of course, the Governor of Lanteeb having an eye in holding regular "bread-and-circuses", with Star Tours financing, among other sponsors, he felt that he would rather have a few amateurs from the First Order with a bronze-level race. His staff reminded him to work his way up the podracing ladder if he wanted Lanteeb to one day be able to hold the same races as the Mandalorian Empire did on Echoy'la and Cademimu, or the Galactic Alliance on Malastare.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we are proud to present... the Lanteeb Grand Prix! Here's your chance to see tomorrow's First Order podracing stars today! We are grateful for Star Tours' contributions to the construction of the Lanteeb Speedway without which the track would never be completed on time!" the announcer trumpeted over PA.

A lineup of stormtroopers, each holding a flag for each contestant, begins marching on the finish line of the podrace that was about to begin, with the contestants themselves, wearing a variety of racing suits. Like Dunames' standard-issue TIE fighter flight suit. Of course, more stormtroopers patrolled the main grandstands of the Lanteeb Speedway, which was actually open-ended because the Governor of Lanteeb planned for various tracks beginning and ending on the Lanteeb Speedway. Dunames was a bit nervous but so were many of the 18 contestants. With podracing being recently approved in First Order territory, and, at this time, Lanteeb holding the first race, in Rocantor Bay...

"Today is a great day in First Order sporting history: the first podrace held in First Order territory!" the announcer trumpeted again, before the Start your engines call would be made.

[member="Amin Garith"] [member="Marzena Choi"] [member="Darth Veles"] [member="Enyo Typhos"] [member="Isla Ashen"] [member="Ricochet"] [member="Sentiri"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

(OOC: I wasn't invited, but I hope you don't mind that I pop in. If you'd rather I didn't, give us a shout and I'll remove).

Ahh, a podrace. It was the first of its kind for Natasi Fortan, whose taste in racing trended more towards horses. As Natasi made her way towards the VIP enclosure in the stands, she felt a pang of painful nostalgia for Herevan. This time of year was the county's best point to point, taking riders across the frigid tundra. Lady Natasi had won the steeplechase only twice in fifteen years of riding, but it had been enjoyable regardless. But that was all gone now; without Herevan to host the riders, serve the dinner, etc., it seemed a dead tradition.

Another brick pulled from the wall.

Podracing was faster, more dangerous, and thus more exciting, Natasi gathered from the excited murmuring of the crowd. She didn't see the appeal, personally, of watching people crash into things at very high speeds, but here she was, in a white dress and a broad-brimmed white hat, simple yet elegant and sitting at a jaunty angle on her chestnut locks. It was her duty to represent the First Order, and to be seen to do so by the public. The podracing industry could be a boon for the First Order, and so Natasi was there, so that her picture would be in the newsreels and magazines, giving a tacit stamp of approval to the whole affair. She collected a program from the usher and was taken to her seat in the VIP enclosure, where she was provided with a glass of champagne and a pair of binoculars.

"What an exhibition," Natasi told her seatmate with a wan smile as she watched the flag parade.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Unused 5]

((Same as me, just give me a shout and I'll delete this))

QRA or Quin was standing next to the people of the V.I.P section, he was ordered to stand guard just in case there were any Republic spies. Quin noticed a recognizable face, [member="Natasi Fortan"], he bowed as he looked at her before turning back to the parade, it was finishing up and before you know it the commentators started the countdown. Quin had been scanning the crowd, nobody looked suspicious yet but you never know.

The thrusters on the pods blasted off right as the commentators said the simple, little word of "go." Going dangerously high speeds one racer already crashed just a few seconds into the race, the explosion was so big though it knocked one racer off their pod and that pod crashed as well, 'sucks for all the people who bet on those people' Quin thought to himself right after the second crash.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

After the parade of flags, made by stormtroopers, ends, the parade of pilots begins. Because most participants are relatively new to the world of podracing, the announcer had to talk about not only their names, but also their planets of origin, their species and their pods, as well as their manufacturers and sponsors if applicable. And, unlike the claim made by Anakin Skywalker circa 32 BBY, humans and Near-Humans could pilot a podracer, just not that many. But those who did had some prior piloting experience before taking up podracing. Pilots cycle through one by one, by their order on the starting grid, with the racers having the pole positions (i.e. the racers on the first row) going in last. From last to first row, and from right to left. Even though [member="Natasi Fortan"] wasn't the host, perhaps Natasi would be one to distribute the prizes after the race is over - provided there would be any that finished. She was in one of the 14 VIP enclosures, all of which are lined up against the finish line. But long after the "start your engines" signal was given, the race began and two racers already crashed behind Dunames in curve #2, a tight left turn.

"Ouch! Patricia Halpern and Buhar Lod crashed against the protection wall! Crashed they were, and the race didn't even last all of 10 seconds! This was Althea Buckland for Podracing Quarterly, stay tuned"

Here was Patricia Halpern and the wreckage of her TIE Podracer, which would be better classified as a rocket podracer, and the other that crashed was a RS 557, piloted by the Nuknog Buhar Lod. But Dunames was in the lead group, fourth by the time she took curve #3, a hard right turn, from the inside and boosted as soon as she was out of it, blasting a cloud of dust in front of the Vulptereen, also piloting a RS 557, and not the least because the track was made out of dust by that point as the asphalt gave way to the dirt. Dunames ceased boosting after she had the assuramce that the Vulptereen was behind her. And only five lengths separated Dunames from the lead by that point, where she had to take a slight left and then arrive with a lake on her right, with a rather wide parabolic curve.

[member="QRA-1768"] [member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Marzena Vaas]

Marzena Choi had not been very excited at the idea of returning to Lanteeb, not after what she had been through at her concert in Lantibba City. However, the First Order ruled supreme on the planet now, and there was little chance of a repeat event. She had confidence that any trace of alien terrorist groups had long since been eliminated in the months following the First Order’s conquest of Lanteeb. So, today she painted on a brave face and made herself presentable for a fun affair. Even though the singer had started to branch out into the more refined world of art and culture, she was here to use her celebrity status to provide a boost to the publicity for the day’s event. As she understood it, this was the first podrace to be held First Order space, and she would be there to celebrate.

The singer had spent the majority of her time posing for photos in front of the various racing crafts and with their pilots. Of course, there had been a few of those silly staged images. Marzena had acted as part of a pit crew for one photo, holding some sort of tool, standing in all her high-heeled glory. She had also been photographed waving the checkered flag at the finish line; the podracers would be superimposed into the images later on.

Now that she had been released from her duties, she walked towards the VIP section as the parade was coming to a close. She would stay for the race, even though such events did not usually hold her interest. Marzena nodded to the man standing guard as she entered. Her dark eyes scanned the seats for a moment, and it wasn’t long before she spotted the elegant figure of Moff Fortan. A smile grew on her face as she slipped into the seat next to the Moff, the hem of her dress slid up just past her knees as she sat.

“It is quite a sight to see, isn’t it?” She responded, not sure that Moff had realized she was sitting there. “And it is so lovely to see you again, Moff Fortan.”

Her attention was drawn down towards the track, the racers were off, and someone had already crashed. Well, it seemed that they were certainly in for an exciting afternoon.

[member="Natasi Fortan"], [member="QRA-1768"], [member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi had not, in fact, noticed that her seatmate was [member="Marzena Choi"], so busy fiddling with the straps of her bincoulars and handbag was she. She reached up anxiously to push a stray curl under her hat and turned. "Ms. Choi, I don't believe it," she said breathlessly, breaking into a smile -- a genuine one. So it wasn't a fluke, Natasi observed wryly. "I can hardly say I was expecting to see you. What a delightful surprise," she said, impulsively reaching over to take Marzena's hand in a light squeeze -- not quite a shake, since they weren't facing one another, but a vaguely friendly gesture.

"It's terribly exciting, isn't it," Natasi said as she leaned forward, resting her crossed forearms over her knees to peer down at the start of the race. "I can't say the sport itself is exciting to me, but I love the atmosphere. And the dedication of those drivers to the First Order and everything we've been working so hard to create..." She felt her lips turning up at the edges before gasping and covering her face as one of the podracers crashed, splattering the crashed-into rock outcropping with gore. "Oh, by the Balance," she breathed, then peeked through her fingers and dropped her hands, taking a breath before she glanced sidelong at Marzena, an apologetic smile on her lips.

"I'm afraid I'm rather new to, ah... contact sport," she said diplomatically. "But I must say it's rather thrilling."

 

[Marzena Vaas]

Marzena matched Natasi’s smile with one that was equally genuine and warm. A podrace was likely the last place one would expect to find the celebrity, so she could understand the Moff’s surprise. Ever since the two had parted ways after having tea at Perennial, Marzena had been hoping that their paths would cross again. She brought her own pair of binoculars up to her eyes, listening as [member="Natasi Fortan"] spoke about the race. Now that she could see the podracers in action and the enthusiasm of everyone in the stands, she was beginning to understand the appeal.

As the racer collided rather violently with the barrier, Marzena closed her eyes and waited for a few moments before opening them. It was almost like a scene out of a holoflick, but she had to remember that there were no special effects here... it was all very real.

“Yes, it is thrilling.” She agreed, offering the Moff a small smile. “It’s definitely not for the faint of heart.”

Watching from the stands was one thing, but she could not imagine being in the cockpit of one of the racers. The pilots must be the sort that actively sought danger, the type that thrived when living on the edge.

“I admire the pilots, they must be very brave.” She said with a nod, “Did you see Ms. [member="Dunames Lopez"]? I had no idea she was a podracer."

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Because the effective firing arcs of the FWMB-10s limit Dunames' ability to use them, Dunames knew that she couldn't use it other than if she was positioned either directly in front, on the flanks or directly behind the target vehicles, meaning that she could only use them when she was on the straight line. But Dunames entered the tunnel after the parabolic curve and, to say the least, the tunnel is normally built for four speeders wide. But a Gyaban 787 podracer takes as much width as two speeders; the podracers enter the tunnel by pairs. Knowing that her field of vision is pretty narrow, she decides not to boost, and even brake when she closes in on the 70-degree right curve after the S-shaped segment, only to boost after the tunnel became straight again, but her opponent had the same idea. Meanwhile, the pink-haired Althea, stationed in the box, comments on what transpires in the tunnel:

"The racers have now entered the most challenging portion of the course: the Lok Durd tunnel. By now we are seeing... a third crash! Ugnaught Kaellur crashed into the hard right curve of the Lok Durd tunnel. On a more positive note, Marianne Kwyjibo is in the lead, closely trailed by Dunames Lopez"

It all came down to who had the best cooling systems because both Dunames' Gyaban 787 and the Madi-Wisc piloted by Marianne were almost at the same speed. Marianne was an Academy pilot cadet that was disciplined multiple times for reckless flying; the engines on her (custom-built!) Madi-Wisc resembled concussion missiles. Or proton bombs. She had to be on probation or something, due to her flying antics.

[member="Natasi Fortan"] [member="Marzena Choi"] [member="QRA-1768"]

 

[Unused 5]

Suddenly Quin got a message through his built in radio in his helmet "hey, QRA-1768, I need you to snipe Marianne's engines, I'm betting on [member="Dunames Lopez"] and I don't want any competition!" Quin's commander commanded through the intercom. Quin didn't say anything and just started to walk out of the V.I.P box and climbed up on top of it and lied down, when Marianne came in for the second lap Quin blasted her engines and her pod turned and crashed into a wall making an explosion. Quin then climbed back down and sneaked back in.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]
[member="Marzena Choi"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

With Marianne's left engine bursting in flame from it having received a blaster bolt, Dunames had to slow down, that is, cease boosting in an attempt to improve her ability to evade the resulting podracer wreck and hence a crash. The reaction of the crowd around the finish line was like a donut: the people close to the track were horrified, like the occupants of the VIP boxes, like the one [member="Natasi Fortan"] and [member="Marzena Choi"] occupied. Meanwhile, the people further away from the crash site were applauding and cheering. Plus there is that rather long curve leading up to about two kilometers from the finish line, with both ladies having boosted for about five kilometers up to that point. But Dunames had to hit the brakes upon crossing the finish line, and not just because of the tightness of curve #2. It was also to avoid Marianne's wreckage. By now a number of species made up the remaining 13 racers. The next two racers, coming in second and third about five seconds behind Dunames, are respectively Ewok and Xamster.

"With Dunames Lopez in the lead, after one lap, who knows what surprises the race will hold for the remaining humans or Near-Humans in the race... fully two of the four pilots that crashed were humans or Near-Humans. Marianne Kwyjibo appears to have been shot down from a position near the finish line" Althea commented from the media booth.

"Here we see that this course is about the same length as the Malastare 100, so named because the total length of the race is approximately 100 kilometers" Karine told on the mic. "Dunames clocked in at 2:13.546"

"Lopez appears to have some room to maneuver to maintain the lead"

The designer of both the Lanteeb Speedway (in that instance she only really designed the paddock, that is, the finish line area) and the Cademimu Autodrome was a guest for Podracing Quarterly. One-third of the contestants were humans or Near-Humans. Looks like another stormtrooper, ARW-357, wagered that only one of the six humans or Near-Humans would finish on the top-5. Of course, the Cademimu Classic and Lanteeb Grand Prix have a long way to go before they could reach the notoriety of even the Malastare 100, let alone the Big Three: the Boonta Eve Classic on Tatooine, the Vinta Harvest Classic on Malastare and the Ando Overland on Ando Prime, all of which are gold-level races, even though the last Boonta Eve Classic was run as if it was open to all levels.

[member="QRA-1768"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"There seems to be no limit to what Ms. [member="Dunames Lopez"] can do," Natasi said drily, glancing over at Marzena for a moment before her her attention was drawn to some sort of ruckus behind them. She turned in her seat, looking over as a trooper clambered up onto the roof of the VIP box. "He must want a better view," she mused thoughtfully, but a moment later the intentions became painfully clear. Natasi stood and called out to the trooper on the rooftop above, [member="QRA-1768"], "Excuse me! Come down here at once!"

She didn't wait for him to come down before rattling off her complaints. "How dare you interfere with an independent sporting event in First Order space. This behavior is absolutely unacceptable! If I find that you or anyone you know had a stake in this race, the consequences will be dire. And I will report this behavior to General [member="Ludolf Vaas"]," she declared imperiously.

This was not strictly speaking true, as Natasi and the General did not seem to be on speaking terms, but her office would certainly communicate it and launch a full investigation. "I expect better from a soldier in First Order space," she declared.

 

[Eun]

Eyes like glacial pools stared icily down at the pod racers as they rushed past, then flicked back to glare daggers at two figures inside the VIP box. One, a soldier, simple as they came. The other a Moff. Not just any moff either.

Kate snorted and stepped out of her illusion. Bent rays of light corrected, making it look as if Kate had stepped out of the shadows rather than simply materializing. The shimmering distortion disappeared, replaced by the slim figure of a young, determined woman. Brunette hair dyed with streaks of auburn fell to the middle of her back. Her face was pale as ivory and made from sharp lines. She wore black from her fine cloak to her boots. The material rubbed against her skin, soft. Stupidly expensive, but better for her purposes than a suit of armor. Besides, she liked the way it felt.

A lot had happened in the past month. Oddly, getting biochipped by Darth Carach hadn't been the worst of it. No... the worst was when she watched her light foil burn straight through Mikhail's heart. Part of her - the part not totally under the directive of the biochip - had wanted to do it. He deserved it, not just for what he'd done to countless people, but for what he'd done to her. Would've been nice of him to just die, but instead the bastard decided to use his last moments of life to help her escape the Triumvirate by ripping the biochip from her brain.

Now she wished he'd just killed her. What was she supposed to do with her life, knowing she'd killed her own father?

Well, this of course...

"Moff Fortan, a message from General Vaas."

Ironic, no?

Ice blue eyes flicked disdainfully across the rest of the VIP box. "Your ears only."

[member="Natasi Fortan"] | [member="QRA-1768"] | [member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi had just about returned to her seat when someone else caught her attention. She turned. A message from General Vaas? That seemed highly suspect, given -- well, given everything. Natasi resisted the almost overwhelming impulse to glance back to [member="Marzena Choi"] as she collected her handbag. "Would you mind holding my seat, please?" she asked without looking, leaving her program and binoculars on the seat. She studied [member="Katya Shorn"]; she didn't recognize her, but the First Order had been expanding so much recently that this wasn't necessarily uncommon. Still...

She reached up, a delicate-lace covered hand tugging at her left earlobe as if to adjust her earring.

"There's a communicator lounge downstairs that should suit," Natasi said, leading the way towards the VIP box door. As she did, two men in fashionable clothes stood; her plainclothes police guards. What they lacked in subtlety they more than made up for in efficiency.

 

[Eun]

Kate looked from the Moff to the two bodyguards who stood up. Stiff posture, backs made from ramrods. She snorted inwardly. Couldn't be anything but military and they were about as subtle as a Houk pretending to be a Kushiban. She nodded and accompanied them down to the lounge, away from the viewing stands.

They walked in silence until they reached the lounge. It was empty. This was not a coincidence.

Shorn turned to face the woman, who inclined her head graciously, with a look both curious and apprehensive. A smirk curled up on side of Kate's mouth, she waved a hand dismissively. The fingers of her other hand opened, revealing two cred coins in the palm.

The guards frowned, one started to step forward. Abruptly, Kate gestured. The coins became silver streaks as they shot from her hand in two directions faster than the eye could follow and buried themselves in the necks of both guards edge first, tearing through the front and out the back. Blood gouted from their throats and they fell to the floor, gasping and scrabbling at their necks as if their fingers could sow the wounds shut. Nothing came from their lips but whispered wheezing.

Pathetic.

Once upon a time, Katherine Shorn didn't kill people, but that was before she'd murdered her father.

"Don't bother," she said to the Moff, voice cold and flat. "Ear comm? Tracker? Earring Recorder? Doesn't matter. It's disabled."

The Force could do a great many things, as it turned out, including a technique that 'flashed' electronics, rendering them useless for a short period of time. She'd done that when she waved her hand.

"Your guards won't be able to call for help. I severed their tracheas. Try anything and you'll get the same. I don't need you to be able to talk."

The air warped around them as if from a heat wave. "Congratulations, you're now invisible, like me. Light warping. Another Force technique. I spent a long time perfecting it, but I don't expect you to appreciate how hard this is. Now you have two options, come with me, or die like them."

She pointed at the two guards who were bleeding out on the floor, blood bubbling up through the holes in their throats.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi's eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward to look at what was in the woman's hand. Whatever it was, it didn't look like a message from General Vaas, and indeed it wasn't. She recoiled in horror at the woman's actions, making a show of crouching and covering her head with one hand. The other hand was already inside her handbag, and she yanked free her blaster and then whipped it around, firing a bolt at this false messenger. The shot went slightly wide of the mark and she didn't have a chance to fire again, as the blaster was ripped from her grip. She looked on in disbelief as the gun went sailing out of her grip.

That was about the end of that.

"You won't get away with this," Natasi said coldly as she straightened. She looked over at the two men who would bleed to death shortly -- unless, by some miracle, someone else came into the lounge in short enough order to save them. She tucked her handbag under her arm and strolled over to her would-be captor. "I doubt whether you'll make it out of the stadium. If you leave now, you may just escape with your life. Maybe." She cast a gaze around the room as the air shimmered around them. What in the Balance? she asked.

[member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Marzena Vaas]

Marzena had turned to watch as the trooper climbed up onto the roof, but it seemed that Moff Fortan had understood what was about to happen way before she did. Oh goodness. This did not look good at all, and the trooper would be sure to meet a very strict punishment for his actions. She blinked a couple of times when Natasi mentioned General Vaas, and her heart instantly began to race.

But her attention was suddenly drawn to the figure of a woman that had seemingly appeared before them. She studied the new arrival for a moment, not someone you would expect to find so readily in the VIP box. However, it seemed that she had brought with her an important message for Moff Fortan. Wasn’t that quite a coincidence? Marzena’s lips parted just slightly, curiosity pulling at her mind, but she nodded to Natasi, even though the Moff had not turned to look at her.

“Yes – of course.” She said quickly, her hand patting the arm rest between their chairs. Marzena had watched as the two women left the VIP area, and she tried to turn her attention back to the race. She had not been paying close attention, and the speed of the podracers made it difficult to know what she had missed. There was only the leader board to help her piece together what had happened.

[member="Natasi Fortan"], [member="Katya Shorn"], [member="Dunames Lopez"], [member="QRA-1768"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

That was... horrible: a woman posing as Knight of Ren just slit the throats of Moff Fortan's bodyguards. Nevertheless, Dunames was still going through the motions of the race, now that she was clearly in the lead. And she suspects that the party responsible for Marianne being shot down would be in deep trouble. Oh, if only all races were like the Mon Gazza Speedway or the Pouffra, or drag races like the Cademimu Drift, in which she took part! But even the Lanteeb Grand Prix was different from the Pouffra: she did more or less the same things as she did in the previous lap, now being certain that she would have the lead for the race, despite the despicable actions of one [member="QRA-1768"]. He and his commanding officer are going to be in deep trouble. Or perhaps his CO was the party responsible for the throats of [member="Natasi Fortan"]'s bodyguards being slit: after all, QRA-1768 committed something that could be construed as treason. But who were Althea or Karine to judge, from the press gallery, just above the pit stop area?

"We were lucky to see no more crashing in this second lap, aren't we? Dunames is coming in at full speed as she boosts towards the finish line with a 11-second lead over the closest contestant, a new lap record to boot?" Althea told on the Podracing Quarterly running commentary.

But Dunames knew better than to be overconfident of a victory like that one: she wouldn't dream of just waltzing in any podrace with a fighting chance of winning. In her current condition she wouldn't even think about running on the Executioner or Gauntlet circuits on Oovo IV, let alone the Grabvine Gateway on Baroonda. And Lanteeb was no different from the planets that have multiple podracing tracks sharing a common finish line: Oovo IV, Baroonda, Ando Prime, Ord Ibanna, Aquilaris.

[member="Marzena Choi"] [member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Eun]

The shot buzzed past Kate, mere inches to the left of her face. She could feel the heat from the bolt as it passed and heard the angry, sizzling whine. The girl scowled darkly.

That shot nearly killed me.

Turned out the Moff did have a spine. Kate glared icy daggers and sought to grab the woman by the arm and frog march her from the room.

Despite the blood, shooting and threats, Fortan managed to maintain an impressive aura of calm and control. Kate was impressed. Of course, the woman still acted like she'd got a durasteel rod shoved somewhere uncomfortable. "Try anything like that again and I might decide you don't need your hands anymore, RoboMoff. Down this hallway."

The bent light illusion kept them from being spotted as they moved along the corridor and toward an exit sign that would take them to a back entrance by the pedestrian street. Ever tried tracking two people in the middle of a crowd watching a pod race? Difficult didn't begin to describe it, which was pretty much the idea.

Sooner or later someone would notice the dead guards and all hell would break loose. "Your earrings, what do they do?"

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

The Moff tried to resist the woman's grasp and pull, but was unable to match her presumably Force-imbued strength. "You're hurting me," Natasi spat over her shoulder as the woman marched her down the hallway and out into the crowd. The natural response would be, of course, that Natasi had not a minute ago tried to shoot [member="Katya Shorn"] in the chest, but the truth of the matter was that this woman had intervened where she did not belong, so she really had no reasonable expectation of safety, did she? The aggressor never benefited in these situations.

Natasi furrowed her brow at the woman's questions. What about her earrings? Aside from being family heirlooms, pearls in white gold settings, they were beautiful and elegant in an understated sort of way, not unlike Natasi herself. "They're earrings. In polite society, women occasionally wear jewelry to adorn their ears." She gave Shorn a withering glance and then rolled her eyes.

 

[Eun]

Just earrings? Kate didn't buy it, but she did not have Jedi training, no way to detect whether or not someone was lying just from the intonation and aura. Kate's scowl wasn't getting any better.

"Hand them over," the pirate steered her down another hallway, so close to the exit that she could almost taste the open air, which wasn't as pleasant as one might think for a girl who'd grown up in space. Agoraphobia? Check yes. "Also," she gave the arm an experimental twist, "You think Eriadu felt a little hurt when you fascist pricks wiped the kriffing surface clean? Deal with it, Queen Bee."

She might not've been trained by Jedi, but she'd definitely received tutelage under the Disciples of Twilight. They had their own brand of morals, including protecting the weak from the cruelty of the strong. They called it shadow justice. [member="Natasi Fortan"] was experiencing it now, first hand.