First Reply Uprising

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: First Reply - unfamiliar writer/character preferred.

"What brings a pretty gal' like ya, to a place like this?"

Valery exhaled through her nose and turned her body away from the Rodian to ignore him. She hated this place. Not just the unwanted advances and creepy stares, but the entire way of living. Sleheyron was a planet that thrived on slavery and the subjugation of others. It sparked every awful memory of Valery's own past in captivity to ignite inside her mind again, and left her wanting to rush to the nearest spaceport to depart forever. But she couldn't leave. She was a Jedi Master at her very core, and today, she had an important mission on Sleheyron.

Posing as one of the Galaxy's finest smugglers, Valery had convinced one of the local slave lords — a Hutt — to meet her later today. She would offer her services to smuggle a new supply of slaves to the planet in exchange for credits or stolen wares she'd be able to sell. In reality, it was a trap to expose his business and put a stop to it once and for all.

A small dent in this planet's slave trade, but a step she needed to take.

With her hand lingering close to the blaster strapped to her hip, Valery walked down the slave market and tried her best not to focus on those captured. She couldn't bare their pleas for mercy, their pain, and the despair in their eyes. All she wanted, was to-

A bright flash overloaded all of her senses at once, and without realizing it until her eyes opened again, Valery had been knocked off her feet and sent flying several feet through the air. A massive explosion had torn apart one of the control stations for the slave market, resulting in many of the energy cells shutting down. The slaves were set free, and they wasted no time rushing out to attack those who had held them captive. Even unarmed, malnourished and sleep deprived, they charged right at them with a desire for revenge burning in their eyes.

Valery groaned and rolled over to her side with a bruised body and a throbbing pain in her head, while people were running and tramping others all around her to get away. Within the chaos of this all, no person was save or offered mercy.

She needed to get out, before this uprising would end with her demise.

 

[Nej Tane]

Exactly One Minute Ago (Prior to Explosion)

Nej had a lot of things wrong with him. But the chief among them was his innate ability to cause trouble. What Nej understood more than any other person in the galaxy, was that sometimes things were the way they were, and he was just a single man. He'd watched Empires, Republics, Coalitions, Confederacies- you name it, he saw it come and go. He couldn't change much, just as he was one man.

But sometimes you got lucky. You got a little good fortune, the right place, and the right time. Nej was on a war path. The Hutts had sent a few people after him, and it ended badly for him, landing him in the slammer and having to escape. So, he found it easy enough to exact his revenge. Or at least, begin to.

It was easy enough to set things in motion. Well, very. He stopped by the slave pens, observing one of the guards near the massive battery cells that connected many of the cages together. With a grin, he stopped, waved, and pretended to tie his shoe. His boots, of course, didn't have laces, but they did have rocket packs on the end of them- and by turning them in such a way...

He lashed upwards, activating his rocket boots, and his armored foot, with the literal force of a rocket, went flying into the guard, who more importantly, went flying into the battery array.

Que explosion.

Current Time (Now passed 60 seconds)

Nej stood up, brushing himself off, his helmet forming over his face. He grinned a little, watching the chaos unfold. He rotated his rocket boots back into their original position, and unfurled his disruptor pistol, intent on causing as much trouble for the Hutts as he could. He stopped, turning his head at a woman. She seemed familiar.

Red-eyed lenses floated over her, trying to get a fix of where he knew her from. She looked over at his direction. Then he realized who she was. It was from a job a while ago- he'd shot one of her Jedi friends. Then he also remembered a crucial fact.

She was also a Jedi.

Nej, in a bit of panic, started to book it away from her, while the riot began to pick up in intensity, the freed slaves fighting against their would-be oppressors en masse. Nej, meanwhile, was running away from the Jedi who he had shot at, threw a flashbang at, and had shot one of her friends. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of a Jedi to begin with- but THAT Jedi?

Not a chance!

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

Valery's senses were still trying to adjust to the chaos when someone ran straight into her from behind, sending her back to the ground with another painful thud. She groaned, pushed herself up and looked around to find an escape. But rather than a way out, she instead found herself staring right at Nej Tane , a face familiar to her, but one she couldn't quite place amidst all this chaos. He turned around, panic in his eyes, and ran away.

Was he...?

Climbing up to her feet, Valery decided to pursue and sprinted through the crowd, dodging and weaving her way around brutes, slavers and slaves alike. Most paid no attention to her at all, but she could tell that something was stirring on the edges of the market. In an attempt to contain the outbreak, the Hutt slavers had sent their people to form a perimeter around the crowded city center.

Anybody who tried to cross, were to be shot.

It didn't take long for the slaves to charge their ranks as well, and with blaster fire as response, the chaos only grew in intensity. Valery was quick to draw her own blaster and drew on the training from Kahlil Noble to guide her senses, and thus her aim. Three shots left the barrel of her pistol, and three of them fell down, stunned.

A gap had opened and Valery ran for it.

"You there, stop!"

 

[Nej Tane]

The world was picking up in violence, slaves getting a hold of weapons, and guards returning the sentiment in kind. The Hutts were not experts in matters of the army or warfare. Some described them as fast-moving, but they weren't as quick as they were made out to be. Quick-thinking applied, too. They didn't plan on something like this. Sure, the Republic, Alliance, Sith, they might've had a plan for a riot? But the Hutts weren't usually so concerned with the idea that someone would go against them.

Nej turned his head, his helmet HUD scanning her, and he blinked twice, zooming in on her. His helmet phased back to it's resting place on the back of his head, folding back into his neck.

The Jedi ran through a gap in the chaos, blaster bolts skipping around her, while Nej withdrew both of his Disruptor pistols, firing both of them at nearby Hutt guards and slave merchants alike, creating another layer of anarchy and chaos that he so reveled in. And he turned and started to run again.

Why was Nej running?

Valery Noble, the god damn Sword of the Jedi, was chasing him. And he just realized that at one point, he shot one of her friends. So he turned his head halfway, shaking his head as he slid under a stall- an impressive display of acrobatics.

"No!"

Came the curt reply. From one of the many merchant stalls, intending to stall her to get to more open ground, Nej grabbed some food items, chucking them behind him at Valery while they tore through the market- along with the blaster bolts.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

The hell is up with this guy?

Valery dipped her head down to avoid a piece of fruit from slapping into her face, and weaved to the side to dodge a second batch of vegetables flying her way. Of all the people to avoid or throw things at here, why her? It just didn't make any sense to her. The Hutts and their minions were still about, and even the slaves posed a threat — in all of this chaos, it was hard to distinguish between friend and foe.

Valery wouldn't be surprise if former slaves accidentally shot or attacked each other amidst all this chaos.

"Force sake, why can't he just listen..." she muttered to herself, still unaware of who he was. But something about his presence made him stand out to her, and now she wasn't going to stop until she caught up to him.

Up ahead, however, Nej would find another obstacle — the Hutts had sent more reinforcements to contain the outbreak, and it included larger speeders with mounted weapons on top. Unlike Valery, they weren't shooting with stun setting on, and gunned down anything that tried to get away.

"There!" Valery exclaimed as she drew closer, hoping to draw him towards an alley between two rows of buildings. Maybe it was possible to lay low there for at least a little bit.

 

[Nej Tane]

​

​

Nej turned, wondering where she was pointing, when the volley of blasterfire sent him scrambling into the alleyway she was pointing at. He backed himself into a corner, but then looked up, before withdrawing both of his Disruptor pistols as she approached.

"You ain't getting that god-damn bounty on me, or getting your revenge! I know who you are, and you ain't taking me in alive! Back up or I'll blast you into atoms!"

Valery knew from experience that Nej, despite his many faults, one of them was not the utilization of his pistols in combat. In fact, that may have been one of the best things about him- and one of the things that he didn't lie or boast about. He killed a lot of people, a lot of Bounty Hunters underestimated him.

Nej may not have been very smart, but he was pretty damn good at killing.

"You Jedi sure are tenacious- I knew you'd catch up with me sooner or later!"

Valery Noble

​

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

Valery slid to a stop.

With two blasters raised and leveled at her, the man tried to keep her at a distance. Valery stared him down and finally, with a closer look, she remembered. Her eyes widened in a flash but then narrowed again with suspicion instead, "Now I remember you," she said, her fingers already tightening around the grip of her own blaster. She didn't want to fight or shoot him, not now. There were too many slavers around and a blaster shot was going to draw attention.

She needed to keep things calm.

"Look, we're not really in a position to fight, hm? I saw you were targeting the slavers, so they'll want to kill us both." Valery slowly took one step forward and looked at his weapons, hoping that he'd lower them down to his hip as well. The sound of voices getting closer behind them drew her gaze over her shoulder for a moment, before it returned to him.

"We have little time."

 

[Nej Tane]

​

"I'll be fine. A Jedi on this planet? Not so much."

Nej looked up. A little too high. Just by a few feet. He looked back down at the Jedi, backing up to the wall, as far as he could into the alley. He could rocket up and away- but risk being seen by slavers.

Interesting proposition.

"Time for what, lady? Time for you to do some weird Jedi mind trick to my mind? Make me think I'm a slug? Make me invest in the stock market? Pay my taxes?"

Nej Tane, genius.


Valery Noble

​

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

"I'll be fine," Valery said with a tilt of her head. "But it helps if we don't reveal ourselves here." She was confident about her skills and ability to escape, but it'd be a lot easier without half of the Hutt slaver's army of goons chasing after her. Another reason why she wasn't going to try and apprehend this guy for shooting at Gatz when they had their first encounter.

Even one shot was going to set things off here.

"I have no desire to mind trick you. We're running out of time to-"

"This way!" A voice called out from the entrance of the alley, just out of sight for Nej and Valery, but the sound of footsteps was getting closer much faster now.

"Go!" Valery exclaimed before she started moving towards Nej herself. Not to attack him, but to hopefully run away alongside him. This wasn't a situation to fight her way out, so running it was.

 

[Nej Tane]

​

Nej looked at her outfit when she said "reveal themselves". Jedi had a funny way of talking.

"Here? Right now? Lady, I get we all have things..."

Nej then stared at her blatantly revealing outfit. A bit too much. But he snapped when the source of the voices came to the mouth of the alley, which brought the gunslinger into action as one of the many Hutt goons that were trying to wrestle control back came to two armed outsiders.

Nej jumped forward, activating his rocket boots- launching himself in a dash towards the Hutt crooks, his pistols outstretched in either hand. With a pivot mid-air and a flourish of his foot that resulted in him spinning head over heel, he aimed to the flanks of the crooks, firing four shots in each, the Disruptor pistols doing their nasty work.

He looked at Valery, his helmet forming off of his face.

Handsome, strawberry blonde hair spilled out in a sweaty mess. He latched his pistols back to their magnetic holsters and ran a hand through his hair. He clicked his teeth, quickly dragging the bodies into a pile of trash. The sound of the riot covered up his shots, and Disruptors were generally less loud than pistols. Just more gruesome.

"Ew, ew ew...."

He pushed forward with Valery, deeper into the alleyways, backstreets and general underbelly of the city, and began to run. He cut a corner, dragging Valery into an empty space, where either dumpsters or perhaps a small business was. He watched Hutt goons pass, screaming, chasing, and then being chased by former slaves. The riot had spread to the citizens as well, taking up their grievances with the slimy Hutts of the world. For good measure, Nej's helmet formed back over his face, but stopped when they took cover. It was a cool piece of tech- and as far as Valery was aware, one-of-a-kind.

"So, you ever accidentally start a planet-wide riot, or is that just me? Funny, all I had to do was kick a guy into a battery. He fried like a tender, man. Bzzzzzt. Hilarious. Good times. Definitely going on my list."

He made a mocking action of the man he literally kicked to his death, into a battery that powered something more powerful than some starship engines, being fried to atoms. Bad guy or dickhead or not, a nasty way to go.

Valery Noble

​

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

"What?" Valery looked confused, then watched his eyes drop down to her chest and perked a brow. "Eyes are up here," she quickly pointed out. It wasn't uncommon for people to look, but he was very shameless about it. There wasn't much time to squint at him for it, though. The Hutt's goons were approaching rapidly, and while Valery turned around to confront them, Nej sprung into action before she could utter a word or even draw her pistol.

With rocket boots ignited, he closed the distance and swirled about while he opened fire. The disruptor pistols did their dirty work, and Valery simply let out a soft sigh.

She could have perhaps stunned them, rather than see them killed.

"You know, we could have stunned them." She grumbled but, again, there was not much time. More of them were coming, so she quickly turned and began to move through the alley with grace and practiced skill. Together, they cut a corner and while Valery was ready to keep going, he suddenly pulled her to the side and kept her hidden alongside him. She had resisted the urge to make a sound, and just watched him while they hid.

Without the mask, he was rather handsome, she had to admit. A shame he was so... reckless? Chaotic?

"Well, I had hoped to free some of them myself. But... I don't think I would have quite started this." The only regret was how many of the escaped slavers were going to be killed.

"Did you even think ahead at all? Getting off this planet will be hard. I'm sure they're going to lock down the spaceport."

 

[Nej Tane]

​

"I wasn't looking at your eyes.."

His eyebrows wiggled. He was a bit of a charmer, in his own way. That- and he seemed to be more experienced than he let on. He turned and stopped, the happy-go-lucky demeanor dropping. Maybe she struck a nerve, maybe he had a persona he put on around everyone. Maybe, for those few moments and when he spoke- it was the real Nej, the one without the jokes, the outlook, and everything else.

"Stun them? So they could wake up tomorrow, enslave someone else, rape someone else, kidnap someone else?" He narrowed his eyes. Maybe this was the reality out here. Maybe this was just Nej. Maybe it was the brutality of the galaxy.

"I hope there's a hell and they're burning in it."

He stopped and listened when the guards had passed, and stood up, rubbing his chin. Maybe he had thought of it, maybe he hadn't.

"I've outrun Republic, Alliance, Sith blockades before on my ship. Hutts in disarray shouldn't be too hard. You want a ride off?"

Valery Noble

​

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

"Oh how charming," Valery said with a roll of her eyes. He was bold and shameless about the way he looked at her. But it seemed that he snapped away from those charming looks and smiles when she mentioned the people he had killed. In an instant, she saw a flash of the man he really was, and narrowed her gaze just a little.

On a personal level, she didn't even disagree with him. These slavers who caused so much misery didn't deserve the freedom they had to abuse and torture innocents.

But she was still a Jedi, and there was often a better way.

"Sometimes, killing them without thought isn't the best way to stop them. Others will take their place, especially with these low-life thugs. By killing them, you kill your ability to learn more, and you inch closer to just becoming a monster who decides what justice is yourself." It was a moral type of dilemma that wasn't really going to be settled here, in some alleyway on a slaver planet while they were being chased.

So, much like him, she dropped it.

"...if you don't mind?" she asked with a kinder smile. "I couldn't exactly bring Jedi or Alliance shuttles, and what I have in the spaceport won't outrun anything. You got something faster?" She asked with an almost excited little grin. She did love going fast. But she was also aware that he had no reason to just give her a ride out.

Unless he'd do it out of kindness?

"What do you want for it in return?"

 

[Nej Tane]

​

For a second, Nej was about to say something even more stupid than usual, when his eyes flicked back down. But while Nej could give her the full Nejty, she could give him something more valuable.

“Amnesty.”

He said with a sly grin, backing up, taking stock that they were alone finally, no Hutt troops or goons to interrupt them.

“I’ve got a record dating back to the Republic- even did a stint in an Alliance prison. And broke out of one.”

He said with a smug, almost proud grin. But the words he used were odd- he didn’t look a day over 29. The Republic was a lifetime ago to most, and if Valery was astute- that meant that Nej was older than she was.

Maybe there was a lot more to Nej.

“Promise me you’ll help me get amnesty. I’ll be a good boy in Alliance space- and I won’t shoot anymore Jedi.” He said, holding up both of his hands to show he wasn’t crossing any fingers.

“I might even be a friend to the Alliance, should you need it.” He held out both of his hands, a true showman, wiggling them a bit.

“Whatya say? Deal?”

​

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

His eyes dipped again, and Valery was ready to whack him for whatever suggestion crossed his mind. But rather than give in to carnal thoughts, Nej decided to ask for something far more clever. Something that almost made her wish he had asked for the other thing instead. To offer him — someone who had no issue pulling the trigger on others — amnesty wasn't exactly a good idea unless she had certainty that he'd behave and follow the law.

Setting free these slaves was a start, but she didn't exactly trust him.

"I'm a Jedi, not a political figure," Valery reminded him while she skeptically looked at the extended hands. "I can vouch for you, but that's going to take more than a ride out of here. You will not kill unless necessary, and you'll come with me to offer a full report about what happened here today, and about what else you know about slaver business." Amnesty or reduced punishments were more common when someone offered valuable information for it in return, after all.

Valery extended her hand, "Do we have a deal?" She flashed a little grin and looked right in his charming eyes. There was definitely something appealing about him that she wouldn't quite admit out loud, but she could keep her focus.

 

[Nej Tane]

Nej had a way with people- especially people he thought were pretty.
​

Nej backed up on his heels, spinning on them, mulling it over, with her counter-offer. She made some good points, but ultimately, he needed her as much as she needed him. So, the handsome, strawberry-blonde ne'er-do-well turned, with that handsome grin, hands outstretched at either side, palms open towards her. A sign among many scoundrels as a good deal, or an honest trade.

"You got yourself a deal, Sword."

He turned and looked down the street, pointing towards the spaceport, about a half mile away. He paused, turning to face her, as if he forgot something. He held up a single finger. "Jedi are definitely political figures when you guys cause about 90 percent of the problems in the galaxy, just saying. You and the red people."

Nej's helmet came folding back up, the red lenses stirring with data modules, as if scanning. He spoke with a modulator- made him sound more intimidating than he wanted to, but it was funny for people who weren't expecting it.

"Spaceport is about a half mile away from here. Planet hasn't entered lockdown yet- I doubt they can even scramble a fleet or get things airborne in the chaos. Bad part about running your own operation on slavery."

He swished some hair out of his face by rolling his neck, thinking.

"We can do some damage on the way out, before we jet though- one of the slavers main barracks, and so, their armory and gear. We break that open, or help break it open before we make it to my ship. This world falls, the Hutts go up in smoke. It would take an Alliance-sized fleet or a whole Sith armada to take a planet like this back and quell a planet-wide insurrection." He proudly stuck a thumb to his chest.

"We should make every Hutt afraid and think about this place. They're next."

Valery Noble

​

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[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

"We don't cause any of the problems. Usually," Valery said, eyes narrowed a little as he spun around. At least he had accepted her offer, but she wasn't going to let him get away with jabs at her that easily. Her eyes then followed him as his mask reappeared and his eyes settled over the spaceport in the distance. Even before he said a word, she could tell that some kind of plan was brewing in his mind.

A plan that spelled danger.

"Damage on the way out?" She frowned and thought it over. Part of her just wanted to leave because the situation was hard to judge amidst all the chaos. But... he was right. This was a great opportunity to deal a more decisive blow to the slavers, and targeting their weapons and ammunition was a way to do that without causing a lot of unnecessary casualties. They'd be keeping the slavers from killing the escaped.

"...fine," she relented after a moment of internal thought.

"I didn't bring a lightsaber or anything too fancy, though. But I know how to use these." she patted the two blasters strapped to her hips and flashed a grin. With a hand, she swiped some of her long hair from her face and turned her orange eyes about.

"Do you know the way?"

 

[Nej Tane]

​

Nej stopped when she said she didn’t bring her lightsabers. He looked at her with a certain expression that obviously displayed his confusion when she mentioned it. He even folded his helmet back behind his ear for it, just to emphasize the point.

“Don’t worry, all we gotta do is open the door and take out a few goons- or maybe they’ll be none left.”

He shrugged, urging her to follow him as he put his helmet back up, sneaking down the alley.

“I mean- it’s in this general direction.” He grabbed Valery suddenly, pushing her against the wall as his HUD brought up danger close by. Sure enough, speeders zoomed by, armed with Hutt goons. He turned his head out of the alley, dashing across the street to get to the other side.

He took cover behind a few broken tables and structures that had been knocked over in the chaos- and there was a significant amount of smoke and haze in the area. A rampaging fire broke out in one of the buildings nearby.

“Smokes bad to breathe in. You gonna be okay without a rebreather?” He asked genuinely, hiding behind a duracrete rubble pile, turning to his new Jedi companion.

“Smokes only gonna get worse… slaves are gonna burn anything with the Hutts name on it.” He looked over at the horizon and the scores of buildings. A feeling of guilt was obviously present.

“I was born in a place like this.” He said, moving more strawberry blonde hair out of his face, while he leaned back against the rubble, taking in the destruction he caused. Pride, guilt, shame, joy, envy, sadness, anger.

Nej was a conflicting man. He was more than he let on, for sure.

A true outlaw to the core, though.

Valery Noble

​

 

[Valery Noble]

Sleheyron

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Nej Tane

"What?" She asked him with a perked brow when he gave her looks for not bringing a lightsaber. "I can't exactly walk around here, showing everybody I'm a Jedi." She could have perhaps chosen clothing to hide her lightsaber in, but it was still a risk. She was also a better shot than she used to be, so blasters and a little help from the Force was all she needed.

She didn't need lightsaber to be a Jedi, damnit.

Together, the two continued through the alleyway, but right as they were about to exit, Valery felt his hand pulling her back. She hit the wall with an oomph, and watched several speeders going by. "...you know, I could sense them coming, too?" She grumbled softly but wasted no more time, and ran after him across the street. For someone like him, he was awfully good at getting around unnoticed.

Something the former Jedi Shadow could appreciate.

"The smoke won't bother me. I can filter my breath," Valery said with an appreciative smile for his concern. Together with Nej, she hid behind the rubble and looked around once to make sure they were alone. When she knew they were, Valery turned back to him and noticed the various emotions in his eyes.

"Is that why you did it? Why you caused this situation?" Valery asked with a more careful tone.

 

[Nej Tane]

​

"Maybe I just like the fires."

He seemed still in disbelief that a Jedi would go without their most useful tool. Hell- he could just cut through the buildings with it, big Nej-sized circles through each, literally going through the buildings. He motioned for her to follow, skirting around buildings. Several times the pair had to dodge a passing swarm of escaped slaves- carrying carcasses of slain oppressors, weapons, or torches or anything that could resemble a weapon. Nej didn't have time to explain who they were, and any stranger was a target now.

The riot was nearly planet-wide at this point. Anyone and everyone was nervous. The tension in the air was tantamount to an invasion. The only thing worse could have been if a Sith Cruiser dropped in-orbit.

The pair came within view of the barracks of the Hutt troops, who, while emptied at first, many had returned to bunker in. There were a few dozen slaves taking pot shots with scavenged rifles. It was a three story building, with many entrances and exits- and tight corridors inside. The windows were lined with wounded or panicked Hutt goons, and a few Mercenaries that seemed more in control, and trying their best to maintain control of their makeshift headquarters.

"Good idea to take this out- seems like this is where the Hutts are trying to coordinate everything anyway. Makes it easier on us to get out."

​

Nej eyed the roof, though he wasn't sure if the Jedi could get up there with him without making too much noise. He led her up to an abandoned apartment across the street from the barracks, in the shadow of another building. His helmet came loose, folding back into the device behind his ears.
He scratched his chin, thinking.

"Got any ideas?"

Nej poked around the apartment, grabbing a container of water, knowing the former occupants wouldn't care, or couldn't stop him. He tossed another to Valery, chugging at his own, before walking back to the window, watching the blaster bolts go wild across the street at each other. They weren't effective either direction, and Nej wondered if anyone had been hit in the exchange. Nej flinched, and looked down to his torso- a spot of blood he must've scratched it where his jacket didn't cover. He winced, before crouching in front of the window, silhouetted by the fire, smoke, and intermittent blaster fire casting green, blue, and red lights into the dim apartment. It would've made for a nice picture, or a painting, but the reality of the situation was far less artistic and poignant.

Valery Noble

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