Take back control

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Miki Starfall"]

The light was lethargic down here. Trextan couldn't blame it. After descending through several hundred levels of Coruscant city Scape there wasn't much left to cast hazy fingers if light between the towers.

This particular district felt as if it had been wedged between two layers of Coruscant. It was a great, empty void between two shells. Towers rose up to fill the space, or descended from above. Some were tall enough - two hundred stories or more - to connect the two layers.

Coruscant's underworld hadn't been given the full attention of law enforcement during the One Sith occupation. In fact several sith had spent their time sponsoring factions and fighting private little wars for control. Now the war with the First Order had wound down to simmering tensions the crime lord's were coming under scrutiny. Even the Jedi were paying attention. But they wouldn't go without a fight.

The shuttle slowed and angled towards block seven. Little thrusters turned back and forth quickly to keep the shuttle balanced.

"Ready?" The pilot asked.

"Ready," Trextan replied. There were a lot of people in block seven but they were after just a few of them. The shuttle backed up to a window and the rear bay doors slid open. Trextan called on the Force and yanked the windows out of their frames. He leaped across the space and into the block. Right into a manufacturing centre for a particular refined spice.



All of this was watched from kilometers away on a monitor.

"Get the Jedi. Send a message," croaked an old man. He watched as the brilliant plume of flame rose up to meet the shuttle, which exploded in a brilliant flash. The man chuckled.

 

[Miki Starfall]

Miki might have not taken Bafili Kravheen’s gun-running job if he’d known that this section of the Coruscant underworld was going to turn into a war zone, but here he was in block seven with stuff going boom all around him. How a tenderfoot like Miki Starfallen came to be working for a Coruscant crime boss was anyone’s guess, but the Thakwaash paid well, he’d give her that. Unfortunately, dead men didn’t need credits. The nearby explosion violently rocked his parked repulsortruck, almost tipping the vehicle over. What the hell was going on out there? Flinching, the Eldorai peered out of the truck to pan his gaze around block seven. Some people were running. Others were taking cover. Debris from the blast had pinned a couple of unlucky maintenance men, too. Miki wondered if he could get to them without drawing the ire of the mad bomber.

There was a tremor in the Force, a wave that he felt deeply in his core. He didn’t quite understand the feeling, but it always happened right when something bad was going to…

KA-BLAM!

There was a second explosion, this one closer to the manufacturing center across the way. Now he felt as if he were sitting in a death hole. The door to the repulsortruck opened with a hiss, and Miki slithered out, belly-crawling until he reached the back of the vehicle. Squatting close to the truck, he activated the code that flipped open the vehicle’s maw, where crates of weapons lay. Miki hadn’t specifically trained with these types of weapons even when he with the Cult of Ashira, but as he hauled out a repeating blaster and loaded it up with ammo, he reckoned there was nothing like a crash course.

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Miki Starfall"]

The shockwave from the blast sent Trextan stumbling forwards. He tucked into a roll and came to a halt. Trextan was on his knees and had to quickly shield his face from a torrent of shattered glass. He stood up but could only rush to the window frames to watch the pieces of the shuttle fall to the street below.

It took him a few seconds to realise where he was. Trextan turned around and look about the almost empty rooms he had jumped into. There were chemistry benches and cabinets but no equipment on most of the desks, no workers and no product. Someone had been tipped off about the raid. Someone who could afford a military grade concussion missile.

He took his comm from his belt and flicked it on. Nothing. So someone who could afford a concussion missile and a jamming device. A tremor in the Force alerted him to the fact that he wasn't alone. The door was kicked in and a grenade rolled across the floor. Trextan brought up his hand and telekenetically flung it back through the opening before it was closed. The flashbang went off on the other side.

Where was he to go now? He could try and find somewhere he could defend. If he wanted to leave Block Seven then it was up or down. Down was closer to street level, but if he left he would be a target out in the open.

 

[Miki Starfall]

As the Eldorai fumbled with the repeating blaster’s tripod, a litany of “should have’s” rattled through his head. I should have stayed on Kaeshana. I should never have abandoned my military career. I should have begged my family to work on their Nuna farm. I should have....

BEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP!

It was the little junk droid that came with the truck, and it scared the living daylights out of him. That’s fine. I wasn’t planning on using my heart for anything today. Miki’s wasn’t exactly fluent in droid-ese but he knew enough to get by, and the little fellow definitely wasn’t happy about the stop.

“I know you’ve got another delivery after this, but this death trap isn’t going anywhere until this area’s been cleared of…”

Who was responsible for this anyway? Crime Lords? Terrorists? The Thakwaash didn’t say anything about block seven being a target for insurgent activity. Absently waving the droid away, Miki caught something moving out of the corner of his eye. There was a figure at a window near the first explosion. He got another feeling from the Force, and it seemed to be connected to that figure. He didn’t know how he knew, but the man was an ally. With two fingers in his mouth, Miki whistled at the droid.

“Wanna make yourself useful? Go up there and tell that guy in the window there’s a cache of weapons down here that he’s welcome to use if he needs them.”

With a few disgruntled whistles, the droid shot towards blown-out windows of the manufacturing center, with no other choice but to carry out its task.

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Miki Starfallen"]

Trextan stepped through the door and swung his saber low to his left and then over his head and down on his right. He hadn’t even looked where the white blade was going but the two closest ambushers were cut down. The rest were falling back and he allowed them to do so. Perhaps it would have been tactically astute to pursue now, but he needed to get to grips with the situation before taking such an aggressive move.

He heard the whine of the repeater at the same time as the Force tugged as his mind. Trextan flattened himself to the floor just as the stream of orange bolts cut through the walls and above him. In a very un-jedi like manner he was cursing under his breath back into the original room. He crawled behind two layers of chemistry benches, but they wouldn’t hold that repeater for long. Must have been a heavy model mounted several rooms over. Someone had put in a lot of effort to arrange this. They were clearly making a statement about the Jedi interfering in their business.

As the droid floated through the window Trextan snapped up his free hand. The droid was immobilised in the air. It whistled at him indignantly. Luckily after the trouble with Choli’s pebbledone droid and its cheeky comments he had a translator installed on the unit built into his artificial arm.

A cache of weapons? Seemed an odd rouse. Rather than think further Trextan had already decided his next move. He released the droid and crawled on his belly to the shattered window. There was no grace in the action as he rolled out of the opening. He tumbled and turned in the air until he found some control, cushioning his landing with the Force. That heavy repeater was still firing up there, he realised. The bolt were striking the next building over and he could hear screams. A little ball of anger threatened to start building deep down.

His armour was already scorched from the sparks and molten chunks of debris from the repeater. Wispy tendrils of smoke left his shoulders as he approached the vehicle.

“Free weapons cache?” he asked, raising one eyebrow in curiosity.

 

[Miki Starfall]

Suddenly, block seven erupted into a ferocious firefight. Blaster fire ricocheted between the buildings, creating a near-impassable column of death in the block's core. Bursts of plasma beams scorched the flank of Miki’s repulsor truck, and with a quick prayer to the Holy Queen of Kaeshana, the Eldorai returned with a storm of fire from his repeater. Miki had never been a violent person. In fact, the reason he was here in the first place was his refusal to serve in the Eldorai military. Things were different now. It was remarkable how quickly a blaster in the face could change one’s philosophical views.

He squinted up at the manufacturing center just in time to see the figure from before, the one he'd instructed his droid to visit, hurl himself out the window. By the Core, he's going to die right before my eyes! He turned through the air, but instead of breaking all his bones on the duracrete, his body absorbed the shock somehow. The Eldorai’s mouth hung open, and he blinked in surprise. “That was amazing! How did you do that?” Oh right. The kid was asking him about the weapons.

Miki nodded, indicating the affirmative. “Yeah, have at it, my friend.” The Thakwaash would be pissed, but Miki hadn’t been planning on staying on Coruscant if he lived through this. A few return rounds later, he tossed his head over his shoulder.

“Hey, what’s all this about anyway? Seems way more intense than a gang dispute.”

Tag: [member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Miki Starfallen"]

The heavy repeater fire cut out above them. Importantly, that meant there weren't any innocents being caught in the fire on the far building. But that also meant someone might have realised he was gone. Trextan watched the young man in confusion. He was eldorai. Trextan had seen plenty of them when he had been on Kaeshana. The planet he hadn't left whole. His land hand subconsciously wrapped around his artificial right wrist.

"This isn't a gang dispute," Trextan said. He moved to one side so that he could look at the eldorai and back up at the tower at the same time. He wasn't certain he wouldn't get a bolt in the back for his troubles yet. "It was a raid from Alliance security. Seems someone tipped them off and they left a trap for me...and my team..." his gaze drifted towards the burning wreckage of the shuttle. The Jedi didn't have a concept of revenge. At least that was what he told himself.

A high pitched whine reached his ears and Trextan followed the sound to see three armed swoops circling the tower. Were they looking for him?

"Why have you got a truck of guns?" Trextan asked bluntly.

 

[Miki Starfall]

The stillness in the air gave the two men a chance to talk, and it gave Miki the opportunity to get a good look at his new friend, or enemy. His blue eyes combed over the other man. He was very young. Possibly younger than Miki, even with the discrepancy in human and Eldorai years. The stranger was tall and dark-haired, with a determined gaze and a world-weariness about him. Where ever he was from, the kid had seen some action.

“The Alliance? You mean the Galactic Alliance?” Miki had never before met someone from the Galactic Alliance, and he couldn’t help but stare in wonderment. The Eldorai followed Trextan’s gaze up to the apex where a swoop patrol dipped into sight. He spoke of a trap and enemies being tipped off. If the Alliance was involved, this could turn into an all-out war.

Then, the kid asked him about the repulsortruck and its lethal cargo. Feth! Did he think Miki was with the enemy?

“S-smuggling,” the Eldorai stammered. “It’s just a smuggling job. I’m a freelancer. I planned on using the credits to get off this rock. Find some place nicer, you know?” He didn’t know why he was telling the Force user all of this. It wasn’t like he asked. “Name’s Miki Starfallen.”

Holding up a finger, the Eldorai suddenly left his repeater, scrambling over a mountain of crates in the back of the truck. Miki used the Force to find the exact crate he was looking for, and typed in the code to open it. Triumphantly, the Eldorai emerged with a Big-ass Homing Missile Launcher™ on his shoulder. Miki had never fired one before, but there was a first time for everything.

“We’re gonna need something to take out those swoops, right?”

So much for making a stand against violence.

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Miki Starfallen"]

There was an entirely honest and youthful exuberance to the young man that seemed entirely at odds with his career choice. With wide eyes and an open mouth Trextan just stared dumbfounded at the rocket launcher.

"We don't need to shoot at them unless..." Trextan knew he had spoken too soon when the Force tugged at him. He turned to see the swoops angling down towards them. They were the least of their worries if they had been spotted, but they were the immediate problem.

Trextan drew his blade and ignited it with a snap-hiss.

"Know how to fire it?"

 

[Miki Starfall]

Miki wasn't worried about the fact that he’d never fired a missile launcher before. A wire had been tripped in the lizard portion of Miki’s brain, and he was in pure survival mode. Trextan seemed just as surprised to see Miki with the oversized weapon as the Eldorai was handing said weapon. An admonition came that was wholly at odds with Trextan's next act, drawing a lightsaber with a snap-hiss. A lightsaber! Holy chit! Miki hadn’t seen one of those since his training, and stared at it with wonder.

Soon, Trextan asked the obvious question given the Eldorai’s apparent guilelessness. Did Miki know how to fire the weapon?

“Nah, but how hard can it be? It’s loaded with homing miss--”

Foompf!

The missile sailed through the air, heading straight for the swoops. The closest swoop was hit in right in the engine, which caused a massive explosion. The blast rocked the entire block, blowing out windows and pelting the entire area with scorched debris, the burned out skeleton of the swoop and its rider plummeting to the bottom of the street.

Great. Just great. Miki had no idea how that happened, but now they were thoroughly fethed.

[member="Trextan Voidstalker"]

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

[member="Miki Starfallen"]

Just as quickly as he has drawn the saber he deactivated the blade. Turning away from the explosion he tucked his chin into his chest and closed his eyes. An irredescent blue shield snapped into existence around them. He had never learned the technique all that well, but it was stable enough to repel the burning chunks of debris that fell around them.

This wasn't going to end until the hunters caught their quarry - in this case himself - or he left the area. Already the citizens around the area were suffering. People had died when that repeater had been firing.

Trextan wasn't sure what had happened to the second swoop, but the third was coming around for a run at them. His white blade snapped into life and swung out to catch several bolts fired from a cannon hanging underneath the bike's chassis.

It swept past them close enough for his hair to be swept up in the wind of its passing.

"How fast can this thing go?" Trextan asked of the van.