Slavery Is So Yesterday!

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

"Well my mom surely is.
She used to free slaves a bunch. I've heard of some of her stories. One of the Hutts hated her." With a passion as far as she knew. It was amazing that her Mom wasn't made into a slave for revenge.

Lori looked to [member="Abigail Meredydd"] as she joked about her tripping just moments ago. She giggled until she snorted, trying to cover her mouth, but the mask prevented that.

"That would be my BIG weakness. Able to defeat any foe!
But lookout for that uneven floor! It's a real doozy!" She burst out with laughter. Maybe too much laughter. But it was FUNNY!!

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

Abigail smiled underneath her hood as Lori spoke so proudly about her mother. Even though Abigail didn't know the girl's mother, she figured that Lori must be quite similar to her mum. At least when freeing slaves.

Abigail looked over to the girl with slight surprise as the little girl started laughing even louder now. Even though Abigail didn't think it was *that* funny, she couldn't help but start laughing softly herself. She wasn't necessarily laughing because of the joke, but after seeing Lori laugh, she couldn't help but do the same.

"Alright alright", she chuckled as she gently bumped Lori's shoulder. "Let's not wake everybody up, shall we?"

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori's laughter turned into a snickering as she tried to control herself. Finally she stuck her hand underneath her mask to cover her mouth until she had settled herself down.

After a moment or two, she cleared her throat, slipped her hand back down and adjusted her coat. "Right. Sorry. I can't help myself sometimes." Lori was the cheery sort. It took a lot to get her depressed or upset. She preferred to be cheery.

Sometimes at the wrong kind of time.

Lori peered up ahead. There were lots of buildings. Any one of them could be their target. "Which one to we go to?"

[member="Abigail Meredydd"]

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

"Well, you don't have to apologize", Abigail responded softly. "Laughing is a good thing, just not as good in this situation."

As Lori came to a stop asking about the buildings, Abigail too stopped to look. She carefully eyed the buildings one by one, but they all looked like normal, almost abandoned warehouses. Looking alone wasn't necessarily going to help them, and she definitely didn't want to go snooping around the wrong warehouse in a place like this.

"Stand still, please", she said as she placed her right hand on Lori's shoulder for support as she whispered a few incomprehensible words. Her own vision was then slowly lost as it merged with the vision of something else, something rushing through the Force to fullfil it's task.

It took a little bit, and during that little bit Abigail hadn't replied to anything Lori might have asked.
Eventually she noticed her own vision come back as she mentally came back to where she was as well. And she hadn't gone without purpose.

"Can't make any promises, but that one right there," she pointed a building a few building away from them," seems to be active behind those big walls. There's transports behind them, but I couldn't see what was in it.."

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Right. They had to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Lori chewed the inside of her cheek, hidden within the confines of the mask.

She raised a brow as [member="Abigail Meredydd"] placed her hand on her shoulder. Was there something wrong? Lori squinted as she heard Abigail whisper. But whatever it was that she said, the girl couldn't make it out.

Secomds seemed to stretch to minutes until finally Abigail came back to the present. Lori craned her neck to try to see the transports poking out from behind the walls, but she couldn't see anything. Was the mask the problem? Or was it something else?

"How do you know? I can't see anything...Or did you just hear the transports?" Her knowledge of numerous Force techniques wasn't very high.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

Abigail looked towards Lori, who seemed to have been confused by her actions, which wasn't strange or unusual.

"I'm sure you've heard of the Force, right?", she asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "Just assume that's how I know for now. Maybe I'll tell you more about it later. It can be a bit confusing at first, and many refuse to believe it as well. Maybe later, as I said."

As Abigail spoke, she started walking towards the warehouse, and Lori tagged along. As they finally reached the outer wall, Abigail looked towards the girl again and now spoke in a whisper.
"On the other side, you will find a block of wood obstructing the side entrance we are nearing", she whispered as they walked next to the wall, away from the main gate and towards a small metal door inside the wall. She remembered the wood blocking the door. In fact, that was the last thing she saw before she snapped back to he present, so anything beyond this point was as alien to her as it was to Lori.

"I'll boost you over, okay? I don't think your jetpack is very quiet, or is it?", she asked as she positioned herself with her back against the wall, ready to give Lori a boost to get her over the wall.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori nodded. She knew of the Force, especially given her family. But she didn't know all the details yet. Heck, all that she knew how to do was to create a little light and to make an imaginary wall around her to stop people from hurting her.

She followed [member="Abigail Meredydd"] to the side of the wall, listening carefully to the information that she was being given. A piece of wood against the door. That was strange, but something easily fixed.

"I haven't put a dampner on the nozels yet to make my jetpack quieter. That'll be my next upgrade when I have the time." Lori placed her hands on Abigail's shoulders and then stood on her hands, working along with her to ease her way up the wall. Once her arms were over, she hoisted herself up, swinging her leg over. A quick look for guards came up with nothing, so she slid the rest of her body over and dropped to the ground with a thunk and clank. After holding her breath for a moment, Lori then grinned as she spotted the piece of wood and removed it, gripping the door handle and opening it. She gave Abigail a cheeky wave, as her mask hid her expression.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

While Lori had probably spent no longer than ten seconds on the other side of the wall, Abigail had still felt a little unsure about the fact she had just dropped the little girl on the other side of a wall and into enemy territory. What if there were guards now? What if she hadn't seen everything? What if something went wrong there? How was she going to help?

However, all these thoughts were immediately silenced and forgotten the moment Lori opened the door and greeted Abby with a wave.

"Very well done, Lori", she replied. "Without you, my attempt to secure this place would have been stopped by a simple door", she joked as she stepped through the opened door so she once again stood beside the little girl.

"Now," she spoke as her tone turned serious," I would advise to remain as quiet as possible. I don't know your preferences, but I usually prefer to get things done as stealthily and harmlessly as possible."

As she slowly started making her way towards a corner leading to a bigger open area where a few trucks stood, she turned her attention towards Lori again. "I do have to say that while I hope we won't have to shed any blood, if it ever comes to the point that it's your or an innocent's life versus theirs... I won't need a single second to decide."

And with that she turned her attention back towards the trucks ahead of them as Lori and her crouched behind a few boxes.

"The trucks seem to be empty, from what I can see", she whispered. "I bet that whatever was in the trucks, is now in there", she added as she nodded towards the main building, the warehouse.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori nodded to [member="Abigail Meredydd"] as she advised her on being quiet. She was well aware of such a thing. Noises were for diversions and right now they didn't need one as they were uncertain of just what exactly they were getting into.

She followed along behind her, keeping low and keeping her movements even, nothing erratic. Lori didn't want to attract unwanted attention just yet.

Once they were at the boxes, Lori crouched down and peered around the side towards the warehouse. A couple of ideas sprang to mind.
"Shall we cut the fuel line on the trucks? That'll prevent them from chasing us down. Then maybe we can try looking in the windows and seeing what we can find." Her jetpack came in handy last time. Being able to look from the skylight, she was able to see the cages, the prisoners, as well as some of the guards. It helped quite a bit. But whether or not there was a skylight on this building remained to be seen.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

Abigail nodded thoughtfully as Lori listed some good ideas. Seemed the little girl wasn't as unfamiliar with these kind of things as Abigail had secretly suspected.

"I'll take care of the trucks, you should go see if there's anything of use on top of the building. I won't be able to reach the roof, but I'll make sure no one sees or bothers you from down here."

She shot the masked girl next to her a quick look to check whether or not she would be agreeing with Abby's plan.

"Besides," she whispered as she averted her gaze towards the trucks," I have the feeling we are running out of time, and have to act quick. They don't intend on staying here, I'm sure."

"I'll do the ground work, you go and play the part of an Angel up above and in the sky, eh?", Abigail whispered with a smile as she briefly place her hand on Lori's shoulder.

"Impress me"
That was the last thing she whispered before she moved away from the boxes and snuck over to the first truck, to see what would be the most effective way to sabotage them all. Lori would go check the building, so Abby also had to make sure she could do that unharmed. Or well, that was assuming Lori agreed to the plan, and wasn't actually following Abigail right now.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori grinned beneath her mask as [member="Abigail Meredydd"] gave her a bit of the plan. Well, of what they could come up with so far. Her smile was evident in her eyes. "Right. I'll try to be as quiet as I can. Hopefully they have a skylight or something." She'll figure it out.

As Abigail headed off to the trucks, Lori moved away from the boxes, slid her goggles over her mask and hit the toggle switch that brought Ol'Sparky to life. She pushed herself off the ground, wanting so badly to play and do some tricks, but now was not the time. She had to be serious. She had to be quick.

It didn't take long to reach the roof of the warehouse. Lori gave herself as soft of a landing as possible before cutting off the engine. She lifted her goggles to the top of her head and then took a look around. There were skylights, but they weren't exactly clear. Hmm. She headed over to the nearest one and rubbed off some of the dirt with her sleeve. Then she cupped her hands around her eyes and peered inside.

What she saw was similar to before. Cages. Lots of cages. And big ones too. She squinted as she tried to make it all out. It appeared as though they were seperated by species. Weird. For some kind of auction, maybe?

Then she spotted the guards. There were about eight of them that she could see, all looking like your garden variety hoodlums. Some wore big dusters, others didn't have a coat at all. Either way they held a cocky bravado as they seemed to count the credits that sat within those cages. They were small timers pretending to be big timers in the Underworld.

But where was the leader?

And what was she to do now? Hmmm.

Angel in the sky. Why not confuse them? She brought out her blaster and hit the toggle switch again, taking to the sky. She didn't fly high though. Instead she moved to one side of the warehouse and began shooting at the windows, shattering the glass. Quickly she'd move from one side to the next, opening fire. That was sure to draw everyone's attention upwards, giving Abigail the chance to attack from the ground.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

As Abigail moved forward, she heard the little girl take off. She took a brief second to look over her shoulder to see Lori fly to the roof, and then another few seconds to make sure nobody else saw her. Once she knew for sure, she turned her back towards Lori again and moved to the trucks, swiftly... 'disconnecting' the trucks from their fuel supply. It was an easy job, as all of the men behind this appeared to be inside. Or at least they weren't near the trucks, that much Abby knew.

As she moved to the next truck, she briefly looked to her side, where there was nothing but air to most, and whispered; "Keep an eye on us. But mostly on her."

Having said that, she moved on to cut the fuel supply from the last truck, after which her job was done. Satisfied that the people here weren't leaving by truck anytime soon, she moved closer to the warehouse. She found an old door, which the men here had undoubtedly mistaken to be locked, but it was held open by a tiny cloth blocking it from closing fully. Abigail carefully peered inside, and could see two men from there. She wouldn't take action yet though, as she wanted to wait for Lori.

And just then did she see the girl through her own means and the Force, as it showed her the girl's intention. Despite being able to see the girl, Abigail was still a bit surprised when Lori started shooting through the windows.

Still, surprised or not, Abigail knew a distraction - and a perfect chance - when she saw one. She swiftly moved through the door and inside the warehouse. As she entered, she was almost pushed aside by one of the men, who had just gotten a blaster to shoot back at whatever was in the sky outside. Luckily for Abigail, the man hadn't expected her, which gave Abby the advantage she needed. She took a hold of his head, and swiftly smashed it into the nearby wall, effectively knocking him out. She quickly took the blaster out of the thug's hand before she made her way forward, hiding behind a set of crates.

In front of her was the main area of the warehouse, a large open space, full with windows throughout which Lori had been shooting. Almost all of the men had blasters of their own now, something which trouble Abigail a bit.

All of the thug's faces were still aimed upwards, towards the windows, trying to find the source of the blaster fire.

Unless Abigail was going to put all of her faith into the Force, it was unlikely she would survive a fight against seven men if she just openly announced herself. Her best chance were to take a hostage, one of the men closed to the boxes she was hiding behind, but chances were pretty big the men here cared not for the others, and would just gun both her and the hostage down laughing. Still though, she had to find a way to at least divert some attention away from the little girl, otherwise some harm might come to her, which was something Abby would not allow to happen.

"Who the hell goes there?", one of the men yelled out loud. "What kind of creature flies?", he then asked his mates silently.

"A demon", one of the others, a strange looking fellow, replied hesitantly.

Well, Abigail couldn't think of Lori being a little demon; she would have named her a little angel herself, but hey, if these men feared demons, then why not. This thought gave Abigail the idea she needed to give Lori a bit more space. She sought out through the Force, to not only see the room around her but to feel it's contents. Then she tried her best, to do small yet significant things. On the other side of the room, she made a few metal objects smash into each other, making a few of the man immediately focus their attention on the noise. Somewhere else she made the main door towards the outside with the trucks fly right open, causing the others to focus their attention away from the windows as well. Abigail was inside and in position now, thanks to Lori diversion. Now it was time that Lori went to a more favourable position under the cover of Abigail's distractions.

It wasn't much, but hopefully now Lori had more space and opportunities to think of a next step for their plan.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Spoiler

Sorry for the delay. Life found a way to take me away from spending more time on Chaos

Lori laughed as deeply as she could. Afterall, kids weren't that scary to big guys and she was just that, a kid. She continued shooting as she whipped around with her jetpack, moving as quickly as she could to further disorient the thugs beneath her.

Did [member="Abigail Meredydd"] go inside? One quick look by the trucks told her as much. Good!! Lori flew to the roof again and cut off her jet pack, allowing her to drop as quietly as she could onto the rooftop. As always, there was an access door for emergencies. She grinned as she walked over to it. As expected, it was locked. But no matter. She kicked the door HARD repeatedly with her booted feet. With Abigail down below, she needed to get the thugs up the stairs. When she thought that she could hear someone approach the door, she hid around the corner with her blaster out, fully planning on taking them out from behind. Her blaster was set to stun to conserve it's energy after all of that shooting.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

A few men seemed to have heard all of the commotion upstairs, as they started to go there one by one. Then they called the rest and they all grabbed their blasters and slowly marched up sets of stairs. Which, obviously, meant that the last of the men, who had no-one looking out for him, took mysteriously long to follow the rest.

As Abigail slowly let the now unconscious man fall to the floor silently, she sought out through the Force to see. It was bad news, but not as bad as she expected. While all of the men had moved upstairs, only two of them seemed to go all the way to the top to find out what the banging noise had been. This gave Lori and Abby slightly more room to operate.

Two men down, too many to go. Abigail slowly crept up the stairs, the stolen blaster clutched in her hand. The blaster had proven useful so far, as it had effectively knocked the guy downstairs out in one hit. Abigail quickly inspected the blaster... and unfortunately couldn't find a stun setting. Ugh, she didn't want to kill, so this was going to be even worse now.
Alright, just take it slow. One step at a time. One enemy at a time.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

BZZZZT!

BZZZZT!!

The first two men were taken out easily enough. They didn't even know what was coming! Well, okay, maybe they sorta did. They just didn't expect to be hit from right behind them.

The two bodies slumped onto the rooftop in a pile and Lori knew that she had to move.

And move she did. With a sly grin on her face, she entered into the door on the rooftop, fired up her jetpack and went straight along the stairs. "CHAAAAAAAARGE!!!" Like a row of dominos, each man fell down the stairs as they were unable to keep their balance with theforce of Lori's jetpack's thrust.

She steered herself away from [member="Abigail Meredydd"] so that she wouldn't knock her off her feet too. Then she turned and fired a bunch of stun bolts at the mangled pile of bad guy bodies on the floor.

Satisfied, Lori shut off her jetpack after lining herself up for a soft landing. She grinned and wiped at her hands. "Is that all of them"

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

For a moment Abigail couldn't do anything but stare as Lori seemed to charge them all head on. It was like she knew what Abby had planned, and decided to do the exact opposite.

The worst part, or perhaps the best, was that it actually worked like a charm! After Lori knocked the men down the stairs, with a force that was achieved by clever usage of the little girl's jetpack no doubt, some of them were already rendered unconscious by the fall. The ones that weren't were then taken care of by Lori's blaster. It was a horrible plan executed amazingly well.

"I'm impressed", Abigail admitted as she walked over to Lori walked up to her. "As for your question", Abigail said as she gently took a hold of Lori's hand which was holding the blaster which did have a stun setting, and aimed it at one of the men who hadn't quite lost his senses yet. After pulling the trigger, Abigail let go of Lori's hand with a smile.

"Yes, that was all of them", Abigail said with a warm smile. "You're quite the force to be reckoned with... Glad you're on my side!"

"Now I suggest we don't bother with hearing what these guys have to say -not like they're in a state to talk anyway- because it will take time for us to be able to separate truths from lies, and I suggest we stay here as short as possible."

"Let's find the contents of those trucks, look around for anything else which might seem important, and leave this behind, for the local authorities perhaps."

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori didn't pull back as [member="Abigail Meredydd"] took hold of her hand and used it to fire her blaster. She trusted her and figured that she saw something that Lori had missed. Sure enough it was one of the men that she didn't knock out earlier. But he was taken care of now.

She snickered as Abigail commented on her methods. Oh yes, she was a force to be reckoned with for sure! Lori stood up a little taller at that, proud to show that yes, she can take care of herself and handle missions too!

At the mention of looking for the truck contents, she nodded. "There's bound to be lots of stuff here. Maybe even some people." Lori could sense them, scared and tucked away somewhere. But she couldn't quite figure out if what she sensed was all of those men that she had knocked out. So she set off to look. The warehouse was big and just full of boxes and crates. She wanted to lift up her mask to allow herself a better view of things, but then decided against it. There could be cameras and she didn't want to be recognized.

Rounding a corner, she came across a series of huge storage crates with doors. Lots of them. She approached one and knocked before trying to open it. Locked! From inside, Lori thought that she heard some sounds, almost a whimpering. "Hello? Anyone in there?" It could be an animal or something for all she knew.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

"Let's do a quick sweep", Abigail commented as they started to search around the warehouse. Abigail walked a bit away from Lori, looking through some papers on a desk. She couldn't find anything interesting so soon moved on to looking inside lockers and crates. The only noteworthy findings so far were a couple of guns hidden in a locker and a small pouch with some credits in it.

She then noticed Lori had found something she thought to be interesting and worthy of investigation, so Abigail left her own little investigation to join Lori's.

"What did you find?", she asked Lori as she stood still beside her, but she needed no answer to know what the girl had found. She walked over to one of the doors and placed her hand against it. After closing her eyes for a moment, she turned to look back at Lori.

"There's someone in there", she said. "In fact," she continued as she closed her eyes again," there are living things in multiple crates."

"Not all of them are... some are animals, I just can't... which ones...", she mumbled before she suddenly grasped her head.
"Damn it", she hissed before sighing, giving her usage of the Force up for a moment.

As she stepped towards Lori again, she spoke. "There must be a way to unlock these crates, but we must be careful while doing so. We don't know what is behind every door."

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori furrowed her brows as [member="Abigail Meredydd"] approached and seemed to listen to what was inside. She figured that there was some living creatures in there. The smell that seemed to come out gave enough of an indication for that. But just how many and what, she didn't know.

"Find a crowbar or something. That should help. We can pry it open. Or I could try to pick the locks." She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, not liking the idea of anything nasty jumping out at them. "As for what's in them...why don't we knock and see what kind of reply we get?" In her mind, that was an easier option, but she'd defer to the more experienced one.