Measuring Up

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt half turned, using his rifle to take a couple of token shots at the stormtroopers that Trextan had just thrown like a pile of garbage. He realized that he was sort of outclassed by the younger man, the whole lightsaber and force use thing making him rather irrelevant in the fight against whatever group of stormtroopers they ran across. Oddly enough though he didn't feel too insecure about it.

Mostly because it meant he'd probably live longer when things came down to it.

”We need a ship.” Kurt reminded Trextan as he rushed forward into another hall, his eyes bouncing towards a nearby control panel. Without much hesitation he rushed over to it, pulling the panel off the wall and ripping one of its wires out. There was a bright spark, and then the doorway they had just passed through sealed shut.

They had to make this look good, like they were actually trying to get away.

”If they send an officer.” Kurt turned, sucking in a breath of fresh air. He was getting terribly out of shape. Dorm life had not been kind to him. ”They send a ship.”

Simple enough really. ”Standard Imperial protocol. Send the grunts first, then when there's something important…”

Kurt trailed off with a shrug.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Yes we need a...wait what?" Trextan cast Kurt a glance and then fell silence as they ran on. It wouldn't take long for the troopers to get past the door one way or another. One advantage the bucket heads had was that they had probably brought a map.

The corridors here were all curved. It meant if they had about ten meters between themselves and the troopers they could get out of the line of sight.

With a pause Trextan was able to follow Kurt and also stretch out with his senses and try and get an idea of where the troopers were going.

"Are we going to try and circle around them back to their hangar?" He asked. "They'll have secured the landing zone."

Oh no. He wasn't thinking of the classic steal the troopers armour was he?

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

”Yeah, and they'll also still be looking for us in ano-” Kurt suddenly found his words cut off mid sentence as a door slid open to the left of him and a man stepped out from behind it.

Kurt wouldn't have even noticed him ordinarily, wouldn't have even given him a second glance, but before the Former Courier could even really react the strange reached out and decked him with the butt of an old blaster rifle. The impact of the weapon against his face caused a loud ‘thump’ noise to ring out within the hallway, and before he knew what was going on Kurt suddenly collapsed onto the ground with blood staining his face.

“LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!”

The man shouted at the top of his lungs.

He was dressed like a civilian, and it was clear that he was several years older than even Kurt. An Imperial tattoo decorated his bicep and the rifle he carried was well past it's best years. Yet his face was a stern one, and his expression turned to downright glee as he raised his rifle and aimed it at Trextan.

“Get on the ground Jedi scum!”

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Okay, okay..." Said Trextan. He didn't actually lie on the ground but instead dropped his lightsaber and very slowly moved his hands out to his sides.

You should have seen that coming he told himself. It was a change to be berating himself for narrowing his focus instead of one of the teachers within the academy.

The Stormtroopers would be on them within a minute. The man didn't fire. Likely deliberate. No one could deny that he had served the empire by capturing a Jedi this way.

"Now!"

"Did you kill him?" Trextan asked. His gaze dropped to Kurt. He could see that he wasn't dead, but he backed up the question with a little push through the Force. He needed just a little more time to work out what to do.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

A groan from Kurt would be enough of an answer for Trextan, at least hopefully.

The former Courier certainly wasn't dead. His heart was still beating and his fingers could still twitch, but a splitting headache was now pushing it's way through his entire body and he could feel blood dripping from a wound in his skull. He frowned, downright scowled against the floor, but didn't move too much for fear of getting shot. A breath filled his lungs, and slowly he tried to steady himself.

"He's alright...for now."​

The words were rather ominous, and probably not too far from the truth.

Stormtroopers were rushing through the station looking for them and it would only be a matter of time before they caught up. Kurt knew that, Trextan likely did too. A sigh escaped him, his eyes squeezed shut for a moment and he vaguely felt around for the rifle he had been holding. The weapon had slid half-way around the turn of the hallway, far from his grasp. His lips thinned as he finally looked up, catching Trextan's eye for just a moment. Kark.

Kurt thought quietly to himself. Jamie's gonna kill me if I die.

Slowly Kurt rolled over onto his side, the man who had struck him pointing his blaster at his face the moment he moved.

"Think twice, lad."​

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"He's staying down," Trextan said as calmly as he could. The muzzle of the weapon was away from him. Good and bad really. Good in that with the Force he could probably cross the gap and disarm the man without being shot. Bad in that Kurt probably would be shot.

Still. A few moments of distraction were enough to form a plan. To do the very delicate work of flicking that safety catch. Tricky work when too much of a push would draw attention.

The muzzle swung back up to settle in the direction of Trextan's chest. He heard the modulated voices of troopers.

"Put the weapon down, please," Trextan made one final plea.

"I've got the Jedi here!" The civilian called out.

That was the last chance for this to end peacefully. Trextan snatched at the weapon with the Force. The trigger was pulled but nothing happened. The rifle went skating along the deck and Trextan drew his lightsaber. Only to have to turn and deflect a red bolt. Stormtroopers had arrived.

He worked his saber in a tight, defensive patter. He was all too aware of the fact that whilst he had disarmed Kurt's attacker, the royal guard was perhaps still at his mercy.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Mercy was a very incorrect word at that moment.

The man wasn't exactly happy about his weapon being taken away from him, Trextan was too far to attack and...well Kurt didn't have a lightsaber. The loyalist lashed out, whether out of anger or duty was impossible to tell but before Kurt had even a second to think he felt a sharp kick in his side.

He felt a pressure, and then a slight crack as one of his ribs broke.

The former Courier's eyes bulged open and adrenaline flooded his system instantly. Blaster bolts switched to Stun bolts and went flying everywhere. The loyalist attempted to follow up his kick, but before he could Kurt grappled onto the man's leg, arms wrapping around it and teeth sinking into flesh. A loud scream echoed through the hall. His counter was about as undignified as he could get, but at this point Kurt didn't exactly give a damn. He pulled the man down onto the ground.

His fist came up and smashed into his face, once, twice, and then the man collapsed.

All the while the Stormtroopers pushed their numbers advantage, heading directly towards Kurt and Trextan with stun bolts raining.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"Kark."

It wasn't a dignified thing for a Jedi to say, bit this wasn't going well. Right now the only thing on his side was that the corridor was long and narrow. Whilst the troopers were a distance away they were limited in the angles they could fire at him.

Being able to stand still and deflect bolts all day didn't help if it only bought them time to surround him. He could see troopers turning off the main corridor to find routes around them.

A scream drew a sideways glance and he saw Kurt clamping his teeth down on the imperialist's leg. One way to do it. He couldn't split his concentration to help. But if Kurt went down and the man picked up his rifle again it was going to be the end of him. Had to trust a complete stranger to overcome the odds or at least delay him.

He couldn't deflect stun rings back at the stormtroopers. That was probably a deliberate tactic. Trextan heard the punches. Saw Kurt shakily finding his feet.

"Fire back!" Trextan cried.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt looked up at Trextan, almost startled by his scream. A whole range of emotion pulled through him for a split second. Anger, fear, but mostly pure and unadulterated rage. The former Courier wasn't entirely sure where the last one came from, but he felt a spike of it suddenly surge inside of him. His eyes opened, his fingers wrapped around the other mans weapon.

The safety flicked off and he half slid to his feet.

Blaster bolts started raining back towards the Stormtroopers. A dozen of their white armored foes pressed forward, Trextan's lightsaber surging back and forth as he caught and broke the stun bolts. Kurt could have sworn that one or two of them would have struck, but the kid did well in defending the both of them.

A curse slipped past his lips as he squeezed the trigger.

Two more troopers fell. "Come on!"

Kurt screamed at Trextan as he began to hobble backwards, his eye on the troopers as he squeezed the trigger again and again. At this point he didn't care what was around the corner, he didn't care where they were running to. His vision was blurry, his head hurt, and he just wanted to get out of there.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

He mentally breathed a sigh of relief when blaster bolts started lancing past him. Anything could have happened from Kurt passing out to shooting him in the back in his daze.

It seemed he still had enough wits to hit the mark too. Even some cover fire would have been enough, but a few accurate bolts eased the pressure on his saber work and gave them the break.

It was predictable, but effective. A sudden telekentic wave to knock down any troopers still out of cover and he turned to flee.

Kurt made for a door only for Trextan to rush up to his side to plunge his saber into the locking mechanism. The sound of troopers bashing on the door came just a moment later.

He looked to the Force for guidance but there were troopers closing all around them. Without warning he turned the tip of his saber on the floor, cutting an irregular hole into it.

"Let it cool!"

Superheated metal wasn't good for the skin. Trextan deactivated his saber and clipped it back to his belt. As the glow of the metal faded he stood beside the hole and braced his legs, holding out one hand for Kurt. The drop was quite deep. He could lower him a good feet down as the lip would still be too hot to use for purchase.

"Go!"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Oh force this is going to hurt. It was the only thought that ran through his mind as he discarded the empty blaster rifle and grabbed Trextan's hand.

He was fairly sure that the loyalist had cracked a rib, if not broken it. Despite the adrenaline that was flowing through his system he could still feel the pain lancing out from his chest, breathing was getting harder, and the blow to his head was making it hard to see. Still, being captured by a couple of stormtroopers would be worse than any pain he now felt.

That much he was sure of.

"Kark it." He said as he half hopped down, hoping the kid had enough strength to support him. He felt the sudden pull on his arm, Trextan hanging onto him, and then a sharp agonizing pain lancing out from his ribcage. The courier let out a loud yelp, his fingers slipped and then he hit the deck below with a loud thump. Another small groan escaped him, but he slowly rolled to the side so that Trextan could follow him through. "Clear."

He called up, still half groaning as he pushed himself to his feet using a nearby wall for help.

They had to get out of here.

His head lulled up and he looked around, trying to find out where the hell they'd landed. His lips thinned slightly as he peered around and saw cores from the station reactors, huge expansive cat-walks lacing the inside of the massive room.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Trextan dropped down lightly as if it hadn't been a one foot drop, let alone ten feet. As soon as he was down one of the thickest segments of metal that had been between the decks floated up off the ground and slotted back into place. Trextan used the tip of his saber to effectively weld it back into place.

It probably wouldn't hold up to much, but right now anything that would buy them time was welcome. He took care to stand aside as the odd blob of molten metal dropped down. One skimmed his artificial arm and very nearly set fire to his clothes. Fortunately it did little to phrik.

"How bad did you get clocked?" Trextan asked. He took a step back and deactivated his blade. If he could keep his focus they could probably find a path back to the hangar now.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt took a deep, long breath.

His vision cleared a bit, his head hurt, but most of the pain was coming from his ribs. A frown settled on his face as he half slid along the wall and turned towards Trextan. The young Jedi Knight was almost entirely unharmed, something that bugged him.

Why was he taking the beating? "Head will be alright."

The former Courier had taken more than one blow to the head over the years. There had been times when his mother had thought he'd received permanent brain damage. His friends had always joked with him about that, and it was probably why he wasn't too smart, but right now he felt relatively fine. Better than dead anyway.

"It's my ribs." He said, slowly lifting his shirt to reveal an already massive bruise. "That's going to be trouble."

Walking would be hard, running? Kurt didn't even want to think about it.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

The worst part was there was nothing that could be done about the injury. Broken ribs just needed time to heal. Bacta could help. They didn't have any. Painkillers would keep him more mobile. They didn't have any.

Hopefully the thought of a stormtrooper execution squad would keep him moving. Trextan realised just how macabre that thought was. He remained more concerned that concussion would set in at the worst time and that Kurt would drop.

Trextan mental chastised himself for now sensing the danger. That was on him.

"This way," Trextan said quietly. He looked around them, eyes narrowed and pointed at a door. "Take it carefully and I can probably sense them coming. This time. Sorry."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

"Don't worry about it." Kurt said as he pulled himself together.

Breathing hurt a bit, and standing hurt worse, but they were still on the run. Right now he was focused on getting out of here. His eyes closed for just a moment, a hand unconsciously went towards his side. Slowly he hobbled along, his walk half stunted by the fact that his ribs were sending out spikes of agony with every step. His eyes flicked across the room, glancing towards the reactor cores and the massive drop that was to either side of him on the catwalk.

He had never been afraid of heights, but right now falling seemed even worse for some reason. Kurt decided that distracting himself was the best option. "Jedi can't see the future."

"At least that's what my girlfriend said." Jamie had explained it all to him once. "More that you guys can get a 'sense' of what's about to happen, right?"

Even that wasn't perfect, like when Jamie had attempted to tame that creature back on Spira. She'd sensed the danger, but not the fact that the creature would lash out. The memory was still burned into his mind, mostly due to the giant scars that were still embedded in his back.

Of course, in his pain he'd completely forgotten his story of being the Royal Guard to the Queen of Naboo and had simply referred to her as his girlfriend.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Trextan turned on the spot again. The physical world was less easy to build a mental picture of and no one had given him a map. So whilst finding the stormtroopers was easy, working out how route them past was less straightforward.

"This door," he declared. The next corridor was dark, fold and clammy. There were several open panels on one side which suggested someone might have been doing maintenance here before the arrival of the imperial fleet.

"Who is your girlfriend?" He asked. "Might know her if she's a Jedi."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

Kurt froze for a second as he realized what he had said.

His lips thinned and he glanced at the door Trextan pointed out. He frowned for just a moment, mentally cursing at himself as he realized that he had talked himself into a corner. His fingers tightened on his ribs, pressing into his injury as if he were punishing himself for being an idiot.

"Jamie Pyne." The young Courier said finally.

Lying wasn't worth it anymore at this point. Trextan had already fought at his side, and it wasn't like the kid was going to kill him or anything. The Civilians were likely almost all loaded up by now, so that just meant he and Trex had to survive long enough to escape.

Telling the truth now wouldn't hurt...hopefully.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"No don't think I..." then it struck him that it was the Queen's name. A few seconds of silence followed. He was still much younger than Kurt and didn't really want to push his luck in conversation.

"So you went from her guard to her... Partner?" He very, very nearly said concubine or male mistress but veered away at the last second. "Actually save it for later. This should be it."



In the middle of the hangar bay a panel lifted up off the floor. Two sets of eyes took a quick glance and then the panel fell back into place.

Trextan gave a slow shake of his head. "Well there are shuttles," he whispered. "I can't take that many troopers. It's too open and I count nearly forty."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

"I'm gonna level with you kid." Kurt said as they walked down the rest of the hallway. "I may have lied to you earlier."

That was the last thing Kurt said on the subject before the two of them headed down the maintenance hall and began to poke their way through. It was a rather difficult trip given his ribs, but eventually they managed to make it to a subset beneath the hangar bay floor. When they came poking up from beneath the paneled floor his eyes were almost instantly drawn to the odd black shuttle that had landed at the edge of the hangar, his eyes narrowing even as Trextan spoke about the troopers.

A frowned settled on his lips, and then he shivered slightly. "Do you feel..."

Kurt trailed off. Something was wrong. He couldn't quite tell what it was but he felt an odd prickling run across his skin.

"Cold?" Yeah, that was a good word for it. Kurt felt cold. Maybe it was the injury, maybe something else, but he couldn't quite tell. His lips thinned and then he half turned, spotting a figure dressed in black strutting into the hangar bay.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"Down, down, down," he hissed. They had been sharing a ladder to push up the panel so Trextan rolled away and let his artificial hand grip the outside of the ladder and take his weight as he slid down a few feet to the ground.

He took a breath, tried to pull himself back from the Force, let it wash over him rather than fluctuate around him. It wasn't a skill of his and he could sense the dark side stretching out. Was the sith searching for him.

"Thought you were about to pass out then. That would have been better." His voice was an angry hiss now. He was a little frightened of what was going through his mind. That to get Kurt off this station he might just have to stay behind. "I can't tell forty troopers in the open. I really can't take forty and a sith."