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 Post subject: Vor's Story
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 9:41 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:04 pm
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Location: Southern Ca
This story begins as many in the ever growing galaxy with a birth, or in the case of Vor Kragresh, a Hatching.

Hatching chamber somewhere on the Trandoshan homeworld;

She-who-is-keeper-of-the-eggs: "You see?!?! See?!?! This one begins to hatch a full cycle before the others are due! Never in all my time as Keeper has such a thing happened!"
He-who-is-father-of-all: "Yes Keeper, I see. Let us sit and see how the small one fares for as you know noone may interfere to help nor hinder the new life as is written in the Code of Life."

Slowly the small eggtooth face begins to emerge from the top of the cracking shell.

She-who-is-keeper-of-the-eggs: "We must tell The-old-ones-of-the-council of this before it is over. Never will they believe us if we tell the tale at a later time."

He-who-is-father-of-all: "They will believe! Maybe not the prattling of an old witless keeper, but I they shall believe!"

As the two turn back they see the egg in small shattered pieces surrounding the convulsing body of the small male Trandoshan. The small body shakes worse and worse with each second.

She-who-is-keeper-of-the-eggs: "Ahh it dies! It dies! And you would have me do nothing for this wonderous birth! I deny The Code! He shall live!" So saying she approachs the baby and begins to breathe into his snout after removing some eggshell from his throat. She pats the baby firmly on the back to keep it breathing.

He-who-is-father-of-all runs at her screaming: "NOOO!! You violate The Code!! Stop!!" But he is interruped by a loud and strong Hssssssss from the small baby. He stops in mid stride, hangs his head for a moment and then looking resolute stalks towards the Keeper.

He-who-is-father-of-all: "Know you that you have violated The Code of Life! For this terrible thing I give you not only the death you deserve for such evil, I also put a dark star over the little one. I name him from the moment of his birth, Vor, meaning He-who-is-outside-The-Code-of-Life!" Having pronounced this doom on the baby the Father-of-all strikes the old keeper once on the neck killing her instantly.

He-who-is-father-of-all: " May the Great Egg forgive her...for her people and this child shall not!" he says as he makes his way sadly to the council chambers to tell of what has happened on this day.

End of The Birth.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part II
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 9:41 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:04 pm
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Location: Southern Ca
Walking down the avenue, Vor ponders many things as he nurses his injured pride and the small oozing scrape on his right middle knuckle. For all of his 8 solar rotations in age he had been harrassed, teased and beaten.
"Yes, Yes.", he thinks as he walks, "It is because I am not of the Code! Is this my fault? I was but an eggling when that evil old keeper did that terrible thing to me! Still, I will show them..I will show them all!!"
His train of thought ends abruptly as three combat caste (he can tell this by the red painted crests) come crashing through the wall of the small store just 2 meters away. The three huge students crunch into the gravely road and are motionless. As Vor watches, a single small trandoshan (a creature handler by his aqua blue crest markings) looks out the huge hole in the wall and approachs the three inert shapes. He quickly checks to the crest artery to be sure they still live. Satisfied, he returns to the store.

"By the Great Egg!!", thinks Vor, "Can it be possible that a single small creature handler took out three combat caste, unarmed? Vor looked, and yes. the combat casters did have thier krrrkKittTikk blades on thier belts...undrawn. Unthinkable that they never had the chance to so much as draw thier castes signature weapon in defence.
Vor makes his way to the door of the building and looks inside to see the creature handler as he gathers up his purchases and starts in his direction.

"Pardon me sir who can only be the direct descendant of The Great Egg. Will you speak to one unworthy of your notice?" Vor had learned the ways of groveling at the end of a stout and hard tree limb. This lesson learned in every scar (and these were none too few) on his body and face.
"You've no need to speak in such a way to me youngling. I can see in your face how life has treated you. What may this one help you with?" But before Vor can answer, the room is suddenly occupied by a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers.

"You there!" says the leader of the troops(made obvious by his colored shoulder guards). "What's going on here? I have a report of a disturbance and find a hole in the wall, three unconscious Trands and witnesses say you caused all this." Vor looks around nervously. All of the Imperials have thier guns trained on the Creature Handler and look very alert as if he may attack them at any moment. "Well?" says the leader as he pokes the muzzle of his blaster into the handlers chest.

" I am most sorry sir, but I do not know what happened. As you can see I am a simple creature trainer and not in any way a match for three large combat caste members." The Trooper looks him over and says, "You aren't much are you? Let's see some ID all the same."

This is all that is witnessed by Vor as he exits unnoticed from the building. Amazed to see the three combat casters still out cold, he makes his way down the street, being careful to make himself blend in and not be noticed. Vor has gone nearly to the spaceport when a heavy hand falls on his shoulder and pins him in place. He struggles, but try as he might he cannot break the rock hard grip. In a panic he throws his hands up to protect his head, this being an action nearly automatic from many years of blows that would otherwise have killed him. When no attack comes, he slowly looks out from between his arms and see's the small creature handler looking at him with a large smile on his face.

"You never told me what is was that you wanted youngling. And to tell the truth it was quite some feat to follow your trail, you are very good at blending in and being invisible when you wish. Not so good that an old tracker like me couldn't find you." He smiles again. Vor lowers his arms and looks the other over slowly. Just barely the height of tall human this Trandoshan is short of stature and not one quarter as bulky as the general combat caste student. Vor has a flash impression that he can trust this stranger.
"Sir, how is it that one like yourself, no offence intended, was able to beat three combat casters unarmed? Granted they were only students and not full Combat soldiers." He notices that the other stands perfectly still and at balance, no wasted motion at all about him.

"That, youngling, is a tale best told full out and is quite long in the telling. If you truely wish to have your answer, come and join me for the evening meal. It is quite some distance to my home so if you wish a tale I will expect you to work a little for the telling." Saying this the other hands Vor a large sack to carry and begins to walk toward the eastern gate of the city.
"What a strange old person he is." thinks Vor, as he begins to follow struggling with the sack.
End part II

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part III
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 9:42 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
"How long have I been here?" thinks Vor as he goes about his daily chores. "Let's see I was eight when I followed Master Gresh to his home here in the swamp, and I am now..." He does some quick figuring in his head while carrying the huge container of bantha fodder to the barns. "Sixteen. Yes sixteen and were I not Outside the Code, I would be prepairing for my Name-Day with the others of my caste." Vor enters the barn and drops the container in it's place with the food for all the creatures currently in the Masters care. Having a few moments before he is to begin his meditation for the day, he thinks back on what he has learned about his Master. He remembers the day of thier meeting and how he learned over a plain yet very filling meal that Master Gresh was a master Teras Kasi martial artist as well as a creature handler. Master Gresh had seen in the young Vor a yearning to be more than he was and had also seen in the scars he bore a hard life behind him. Master Gresh had taken him in and begun to teach him the ways of both creature handling and of the Teras Kasi. The constant physical work built Vor a fine strong body while the Teras Kasi meditations soothed his hate and resentment filled psyche.

Vor snapped out of his mind-dreaming and put up a blocking hand to catch the wooden staff that would have cracked his skull had it connected. "Good! Good Vor! You're training is nearly complete in the ways of defence. Soon I will begin to teach you the ways to disable an attacker so that you can be away." Says Master Gresh as he lowers the staff to his side. "Have you finished your chores for this time period?" Vor looks up at his Master, "Yes Master Gresh. There was a delivery while you were away, a merchent brought in a Dewback and said he wanted it trained. He said the beast was sold to him as trained but then turned on him and he wishes you to break it to the harness." Vor accepted his masters hand, stood and started towards the new arrival pens. "Vor, you must go about the meditations now. I will look over the animal and see what can be done. You may watch me with it after your meditations are complete and the evening meal prepaired. " Vor does as he is told wishing he could see the master with the dewback when they first come together.

As Vor is finishing up the preperations for the evening meal, he hears a loud commotion coming from the direction of the new arrivals pen. He adds the final spice and sets the meal warmer to a low setting and goes to investigate. When he arrives at the pen, he finds Master Gresh on the outside of the pen with a pained look on his face. "What is it master? You seem troubled." Master Gresh never moves his eyes from the rampaging dewback in the pen as he speaks, "Troubled? Yes, I am troubled. Look at the poor mad thing. No wonder it turned on the merchant! Someone has tried to train it with a pain staff. See you the large yellowish bruises along it's flanks? Terrible! Who would do such a thing and call themselves a trainer!?!?! Let us go and eat our meal. Afterwards we will make the trip to Master Kra's home and report this to him." Master Gresh finally looks away from the dewback and smiles at Vor, "Master Kra will be most pleased with your progress and may have some sage advice for us both." As they start towards the house, Vor notices that Master Gresh has blood dripping from his right hand mid fingertip and that he is holding that arm in a strange manner.

When they arrive at Master Kra's home, Master Gresh tells Vor to see if there are any animals that need to be fed in Master Kra's pens. "Not that this is likely, Master Kra is after all my teacher and not lax in his work, but check them all the same Vor." This said he knocks on the door of the house. Vor, not wanting to miss anything his master or his master's master may say and knowing the animals to be well tended, sneaks around to the back of the house where the kitchen is located and hides beneath the window. Vor composes himself in total silence to that his masters will not sense his presence and listens to the low tones coming from the window.

"Broken to be sure." Says Master Kra. "Aye. A merchant brought in a dewback that had been driven mad by an attept to electro shock train him. I foolishly thought I could use the calming ritual to get close enough to examine the poor beast."
"You know very well that the calming ritual requires a sane animal to work! Where was your head?!?!" "Yes Master, I know and I take full responsibility for the error. My only problem now is that I think young Vor saw the damage the animal caused." There are sounds like a cabinet opening and then the sound of a container being opened. "I shall mend it as best I can foolish Gresh, but it may never heal correctly." More sounds, this time a loud CRACK! followed by a hiss of pain from Master Gresh, then the sounds of ripping cloth and some movement that Vor cannot place.

"Keep your head about you for the next few months. I do not need to have you come here soon with this rebroken because you forgot you were injured while training young Vor. And with his current rate of progress I doubt not that he will be your equal in the years to come. Already he is on a level with you in the training pens."
"I will remember Master. He is quite skilled is he not? In fact it was not until this very moment that I sensed he was listening to us as we spoke." Vor snaps to attention and makes his way to the back door and enters. There is no point in denying he had been listening. If Master Gresh noticed him it was a sure bet that Master Kra had known he was there the whole time. "I am sorry Master Gresh, Master Kra, I knew the animals would already have been tended and I was concerned for Master Gresh's arm. It was wrong of me to use my skills to listen in."
Master Kra laughs, "Well young one, this time do us all the favor of actually doing as requested eh? I have a shipment of baby banthas due in at the spaceport. Please be kind enough to go there and bring them in and settle them in the pens?" Master Kra always framed his statements as questions or requests, never as an order in the manner of Master Gresh. "I shall do so immediately Master Kra, with my masters permission of course." Master Gresh smiles at Vor and nods his head.

The trip to the spaceport and the trip back thorugh the swamps had been as uneventful as any Vor could remember until he crested the last small hill outside Master Kra's valley. Here Vor began to sense something terribly wrong.

End Part Three

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part IV
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 9:46 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Leaping from the back of the dewback, Vor gives it the hand signal to stay and runs through the final bit of tree cover surrounding Master Kra's land. Already he has noticed the lack of wildlife sounds and the smell of fire on the wind. Bursting into the open, his breathe is taken away by the combined stench of burning hair, timber and roasted animal bodies. "Great Egg have mercy! Master Kra!! Master Gresh!!! Masters!! Where are you Masters!??!?!" The awful smoke making his eyes water and burn, Vor makes his stumbling way towards where the house should be. He is amazed to find the house still standing and, for all the smoke pouring from the upper levels and the gaping whole where the front door used to be, remarkably intact. Seeing no fire in the lower floor, he makes his way into the home to find his masters. The smoke inside is far worse than it was in the open where it mingled with the breeze and good air that flowed through the valley. Throat burning he calls out, "Masters, are you here Masters?!?" Vor strains to hear and just as he is about to leave the terrible smoke, he hears a tiny scraping sound in the area of the kitchen. Vor lowers his head, gulps in the foul air and enters the kitchen where he finds Master Gresh. Without thinking of possible further injury, Vor gathers up the broken frame of his master and exits the back door. Though the air is cleaner here Vor finds he cannot catch his breath, his master is so still and motionless. Gently Vor lowers his master to one of the few remaining stacks of unburnt dry weed.
"Master." He says. It is barely a croak his voice is so filled with the emotion of his heart. "Master, what happened Master? Where is Master Kra? Will you be alright here if I leave you to search for him also? Please Master! Say something!" Vor hangs his head and closes his eyes. He knows that he must get his emotions in check if he is to function and help his masters. As he begins a meditation, he feels Master Gresh's hand touch his. "Master! you live! Praise the Egg!" He sees a tiny smile break through the pain filled countenance of his master. "Yes Vor I yet live. Not through lack of trying on the part of the religious caste though." He begins to say more and stops as he begins to cough violently, blood mixing with the dry weed he lays on. "Mast...cough cough...Master Kra fights them still. I....I am not long for the light Vor. I have come to the end of the Code of Life." Coughing again he hands Vor a small holocube. "View this when you have escaped from this planet Vor, do not seek Master Kra. He will fight them till the last and I fear his state would be far worse than mine should you find him." Cough Cough "Please Vor..if you love me as a Master...as I have loved you...like a son..leave thgis place now!" Master Gresh rolls away from Vor and falls into a fit of coughing that he will not see the end of. Vor, who loved his Master as if her were the Great Egg itself, did as he was bid and moved quickly back to the place where he had left the dewback standing with the wagon full of animals.

As he reluctantly turns the dewback around to head back in the direction of town, he broods as he hasn't done since before Master Gresh took him in. The old Hate comes rushing up within him a thousand fold stronger than when he was a child. "By the Great Egg, by the life that has been taken from me this day, I SWEAR, the religious caste shall pay for this deed!! I will level each and every temple! I shall personally wring the life from the neck of each religious caste member and I will Laugh as I feel thier final breaths slipping from my fingers!!!" Vor knows that to attempt to start his quest here on the homeworld is sheer folly, if he wants to begin a holy war, he against the so called holy, he must begin it with a solid plan and on a world where they do not know that he is outside the Code. Thinking how he shall begin, Vor halts the dewback and turns it deeper into the swamps. "I must find a hidden place and there train these small animals. Only trained animals will give me the credits to buy passage of planet and outfit me with gear." A feeling like his heart being ripped from his chest comes to Vor as he thinks how his master looked that last time. he suddenly remembers the holocube his master had given him. Setting the dewback on a general course, he places the holocube on the bench next to him and engages it.

"Vor." says the holographic likeness of his hale and health master. "We have learned that the religious caste has finally found that Master Kra and I were the ones that took you in and kept you safe. They will do anything in thier fanatic quest to rid the world of evil as they see it and as you are named quite literally for the worst evil in our culture, you are thier prime target. We have sent you away to spare you the death we both know is coming. We had hoped that this would be your Naming Day as it is with all our race that reach your age. Unfortunately this is not to be. So, with this statement and the one registered at the spaceport earlier this cycle, Master Kra and I pass out names and titles down to you. I name you KraGresh my son. You are now Kragresh son of Gresh who is Son of Kra. Wear this title proudly as I have and as Maste Kra has done my son. May the Great Egg smile on you in the life ahead of you. Good bye and live well."

The image of his master gone, Vor cannot speak. There is alump in his throat that seems as if it will cut off his air and kill him. "Master!!" he screams into the night air. "Master!! I shall wear this name with pride! But I cannot forget the evil done to me this day!! I rename myself Vor Kragresh! Son of Gresh who is Son of Kra who is outside the Code!!" As he makes his way deeper into the swamp the thinks, "Let them learn fear. Oh yes! They will learn it well!"

End part IV

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part V
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 9:59 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Scene: an ally in the city of Mos Espa. Dark and empty the alley looks out to a dusty night clstreak past the alley mouth. A largish figure turns the corner of the alley at a run and stops. His back becoming one with the wall of the alley entrance he waits in silence.

Vor can hear the heavy tread of the city militia as they run after him. "Vor not want hurt militia!" He yells from his cover. "Vor much honor! You go! One chance Vor give, not more." Whispered voices: "He's in the alley. Tal, you and darryln circle back around the block and we'll cut the murdering reptile off. Trap him in the alley." "Roger that sir." The sound of two persons moving away at a run.
Vor chooses this moment to emerge, at a run, directly towards the small group of militia. Taken aback by this single, hunted Trandoshan actually attacking them, the militia men do not react nearly fast enough to stop Vor before he is among them. A jumping double side kick removes two of the militia, a claw point to the correct area of the nerve bundle at the back of the neck takes out another and a knife edge hand, chopping down hard as hull plating to the neck of the fourth leaves Vor the only being standing on the street. Stooping, Vor quickly checks to be sure they are all alive, then heads back down the street towards the now empty (except for the cooling corpses) Trandoshan Temple of The Egg. "They will not look there again so soon. They will think I am still heading out of the city and look for me at the gates." Thinks Vor as he makes is way, always in the embrace of the shadows, towards the temple. As he moves towards his destination, Vor thinks back to what has brought him to this place.
After the death of his masters, Vor found a place in the swamp where he could build a traning area and begin the process he had learned, to make the banthas he was hauling, into money animals. From this place he was able to strike here and there always killing only a single religious caste member before retreating back into the swamps. He became so effecient at this that the local populace began to speak of The spirit from the swamp. The militia had at first made every effort to capture this Spirit. After the loss of nearly two dozen members, all of whom entered the swamp but never came back out, they too came to shun the swamp in fear. Vor was proud of the fact that he had not killed a single one of them. The swamps had done that for him. Granted, he seemed to have some strange ability to make his will known to the local creatures, but even so he had never actually 'told' the swamp animals to kill the men. Vor assumed that his ability to "converse" after a manner with the creatures was a part of the skills he had learned from Master Gresh to tame animals and never gave it a second thought.
Vor's train of thought is interupted when he finds himself a short distance from the temple and sees a squad of Imperials lounging at the front of the building. "This is my first strike on a different planet, maybe the militia actually called in Imperial help to catch The Swamp Spirit." he thinks as he blends into the shadows ever deeper. Stopping suddenly, Vor senses a presence behind him. Something new that he has never felt the like of. Slowly a bedraggled and filthy creature approachs him. He can sense it's caution and also it's curiosity. Vor makes it known to the creature that he is in need of help and needs to get the, an impression of hard white skins with unliving eyes, away from the building across the street. The creature backs into the darkness from which it had come and disappears. Vor turns back to watching the Imperials. They don't seem to be acutally watching the building. It may be just a chance patrol that has stopped for a moment. "Well there are only six of them" he says to himself. "And if I don't do something soon, the militia men that went to circle behind him will find thier downed companions and raise the alert." Sigh. "But! Tackling militia is one thing. Imperial Stormtroopers is something entirely different." Just as he finishes this though a terrible screaming grating sound begins to erupt from the alley behind him. Flattening himself against the wall, Vor does not move at all as a huge number of creatures, like the one he saw earler, pour out of the alley and head for the Imperials.
Alerted by the first scream from the alley, the stormtroopers begin to blast animal after animal. A good 15 of the animals are downed before the huge pack reachs the men and they are torn from thier feet and swept away from the building. The only evidence of the troopers is a terrible high pitched screaming and a flailing limb from within the writhing moving mass of animals. Vor thanks the animals silently as he enters the building. Here he knows he will find the location of the High Priest of The Egg here on Tatooine. Then and only then can Vor make his move on the final member of the religious caste here in Mos Espa and move to his next target. Thinking he has little time before more Imperials come to investigate the loss of thier patrol, he moves into the darkened charnal house that was once a temple.
End Part V

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part VI
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:01 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Clouded street like any other. Suddenly the sound of blasterfire and red bolts of searing energy

Slowly Vor noticed that he was not, as he had at first thought, dead. He began to notice the general outline of the room he currently occupied. An attempt to sit up was rewarded with a small movement of his head and a grunt of pain. A disembodied voice,sounding as if it were being broadcast directly into his aching head, speaks.
"Ahhh. You are awake at last Vor Kragresh. The pain you are feeling will pass in a short time, your suffering however has just begun. Where-as a full burst from a blaster set to heavy stun is short lived, I assure you that the pain you will feel at my hands will last you a full lifetime." The last thing Vor can remember is entering the home of the High Priest of the Egg and then falling into darkness. "You are wondering, I am sure, how we knew who you were and that you would strike at my home when you did. All these things will become clear to you in due time. But for this time it will please me greatly to see you suffer!" The voice is replaced by a sonic shriek that seems as if it will tear his head apart. Again he falls into the comfortable darkness.

Coming back from the darkness is very slow and painful for Vor. He notes that the cell, for that is all he can call the metal 6' x 10' x 12' room he is in, is well lit and devoid of any feature that might be used to aid a prisoner. He sits up slowly, head pounding, and wonders when his jailors will come again to torture him. In the corner near the cell door is a small pail of stagnant water and a very rotten smelling meat beast carcas. " Well, if nothing else I won't starve." he thinks as he checks his person to see is they left him any small item at all. "Nothing, but then I didn't really think they would miss anything." "You will stand Vor!" comes an imperious voice from the ceiling. Vor stands and finds himself immediately trapped in stasis shackles unable to move. The door to the cell slides smoothly into the wall and a tall doshan wearing the garb of a High Acolyte enters the room and sits on the single metal cot before addressing himself to Vor. "I am Draln Valor, Acolyte to his holiness High Priest Marg, and you, Vor Kragresh, have caused us a great deal of trouble. Above and beyond the loss of an entire temple full of lesser priests and acolytes, you have brought the eye of the Imperials apon us." "And what is this to me, religious scum! Were it in my power I would have the Imperials extract the meat teeth of every religious caste member one by one and leave them to starve on the homeworld!" Saying this Vor spits on Draln. The acolyte, smiles and wipes the spittle from his face, saying, "Ahhh Vor. Forever the fanatic anti religious rebel. Well it will please you to know one thing. His Holiness will be deprived of the pleasure of torturing you slowly to death, for you see the Imperials have somehow discovered that you were responsible for the loss of an entire squad of Stormtroopers. His holiness was most displeased when the local Mof demanded your release to Imperial justice. As if there is such a thing as imperial justice." Draln chuckles to himself. "At any rate, you are to be transfered to the local Imperial jail to await what fate the empire feels you deserve for the death of six troopers." The acolyte, smiling still, rises and looks directly into Vors eyes, "Our one bit of good fortune is that the Imperials are not known for thier leniency nor for thier speed in bringing about the death of a convicted killer." As he enters the hall, he turns, "Oh and a word of caution Vor. The Doshan government has already been contacted by his holiness. There will be no demand for your return. Unless of course. through some strange twist of fate, the Imperials find you innocent." As the door closes Draln adds one last comment. "I'd plead guilty if I were you."

Vor does nothing to provoke a response as he is transfered, by no less that three dozen stormtroopers, to the Imperial jail. He is placed in a holding cell where he finds he is not alone. The current occupant is asleep facing the wall and from all appearances is a human. Vor smells something he cannot place on the recumbant form, that makes him wish for the scent of the rancid meat beast in his former cell. "You! Human! Make room Vor need sit!" A groan from the human and a voice that sounds more like a croak than speach. "Could you keep it down please? The dance hall in my head is standing room only, so take a number and wait at the bar." The human rolls over and slowly looks up and up till he sees Vors scar covered face glaring at him. "Blazes! You look worse than I feel (if that is at all within the realm of possibility). Please have a seat before your face leaps off and joins my head in a protest of our lives in general." So saying the human moves to a corner of the cell and slumps down into it. "So tell me gruesome, what brings a pretty face like that to the Imperial Grand Hotel eh?" Vor thinks for a moment, and decides that the humans strange manner is not intended to offend and answers "Vor not is know. Vor thinking is Imperials want Vor murdering troopers is." The Human looks at Vor and laughs to himself. "And tell me, did they capture you by stunning your tongue, or were you taught standard by a wookie programmed protocal droid?" Vor rises and looks menacing as he towers over the human. "Take it easy there tall and scaly. No offence intended. In my condition I wouldn't even be able to bleed on you when you crushed me. I think my blood is somewhere in the one hundred eighty proof range. It's the booze talking. My most abject apologies if I got you mad. You are obviously a nasty customer if you go about murdering whole divisions of stormtroopers. Truce?" The human puts his hand out. Vor shakes the human hand as he has seen done in the market place though he has no idea why humans find this touching of hands such a thing of honor. As the human pulls his hand back he goes on, "Whew, for a moment there I thought I was going to need a replacement for that hand. Quite a grip you have there. As you have been so good as to tell me your entire history, I shall regale you with the stunning tale of my fall into the hands of drink and my subsequent fall to this current state you find me in. But before we get so friendly that we date each others sisters, my name is Daishus, Daishus ReShak. And you my large reptilian friend are?"
Vor is not sure how to take the human. He seems friendly even while making comments that would seem to be on the edge of insults. Vor is also reluctant to give his name as it usually meets with a very bad reaction. Maybe this time it shall be different. "Vor. I being am Vor KraGresh." Daishus says the name once or twice in a low voice to himself before commenting, " Nice to meet you Vor. I will leave the other name to you as I would probably bite my tongue off trying to pronounce it. There. Now that we are the best of lifelong friends allow me to tell you the manner in which my reservation was made to Hotel Imperial."

Stay tuned for the next episode to see how Daishus ReShak found himself in the imperial holding cell with our favorite Doshan, Vor Kragresh.
End Part VI

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 7
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:02 pm 
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Having circled the tiny room for the fourth time and finding still not a single item that might aid in an escape attempt, Vor sits on the single metal cot in the cell. Slowly his gazes makes it's way around the cell till it falls on strange human companion in custody. To Vors astonishment, Daishus ReShak has produced a small metal flask, seemingly from thin air, and taken a small sip. With a shudder of pleasure, he looks at Vor and says, "Ahhh. Sometimes I would like to find the man who invented booze and kill him slowly over hot coals and then there are times like now, when I would probably give him my last credit to continue his fine fine work hahaha." Making the flask disappear to the same mysterious space it had come from. "Well, what say check out of this hotel and see about finding some less grey colored place to seek excitement eh?" So saying Daishus produces from the same 'other space' that the flask came from, a small, thin strip if metal. Vor is very impressed with the humans skills, as he was unable to hide a single atom from the Imperial troopers search. Daishus sits on the floor and uses the thin piece of metal on the heal of his boot, "I saw this on a pre-holo." He grins and slids the heel to one side revealing a small electronic suite concealed therein. A small red light begins a rythmic pulsing in the heel device and Daishus moves the the heel back into place and puts the boot back on. He stamps his foot a few times, hard enough it seems to Vor, to break whatever the thing in his boot is. "Gotta make sure it is resecured. Wouldn't do at all to have the heel fall off during our glorious escape now would it. Sprawled on the floor is not my fastest mode of movement." Daishus goes back to the corner of the cell and sits, again producing the metal flask and taking a small sip. "Now while we wait, where was I? Ahh yes I remember." He closes his eyes as if the pain in his head has increased a thousand fold and begins to speak.
"So there I was, minding my own business in this little drinking establishment when all hell broke loose. Mind you, I am not usually adverse to a bit of fun, but this was more than even I like. Especially with it being my special day to get drunk." He takes another sip from the flask and continues,"I had just ordered my fifth very small drink when this voice comes from the door. "Daishus!" The voice says, "Get on your feet you scum!" Now normally I am such a good natured fellow that such a term wouldn't even have gotten my attention, much less made me the slightest bit angry.But as I was saying this was my special Get Drunk Day, and well, I really didn't like his tone if you get me. So I turn around to see which of my many many friends I have managed to get mad this time only to stare into a face that is not only not a friend, but not even an enemy that I recall. The fellow was a rather tall Zabrak wearing a, pink if you can believe it, long shirt and brown pantaloons. "I'm sorry was that your daughter? She told me she was 25, I swear." I say being my usual self and hoping that this Zabrak will slip and maybe tell me what his problem is. His hand was hovering near a blaster that looked as if it should have been mounted on a Mon Cal cruiser. So to get his attention I say, "Here, let me buy you a drink and you can tell me what you offer to take the ugly thing off your hands." The daughter that is, not the blaster you understand. "You know why I am here you lousy murdering scum! All the best business goes the way of you and your Avian fellows. Nothing left for we hard workers that are independent. And don't even pretend that some of the Avians aren't rebel sympathizers!" By this time he is walking over to where I am sitting at the bar. You know I have noticed" Daishus says taking another sip from the flask."Most people spend far too much time talking when they should be shooting. Not that I am complaining in this case mind you. Just an observation. So by this time I have managed to slip a knife into the hand that is resting on my leg (And don't bother to ask where it came from. Trade secret and all that.). Trying to keep the fellows attention on my face(strange how I tend to do the opposite where fists are involved) I say to him, "And what exactly is it that you think I personally have done to you? As you can see I am sitting here quitely getting drunk.The only lethal item about me right now is my breath. So who am I supposed to have killed this time?" The fellow is right in my face by now and he says "You know my brother was forced to steal some food for his family because you avians get all the good jobs! The imperials arrested him and executed him as an example to keep others from stealing Imperial supplies!" It was just then that I made what was probably the worst choice I could make. I laughed. Not just a Little chuckle either. I gaffawed in his face. When I finally got my gale force hilarity under control, I noticed the poor fellows face was so tight with anger it looked as it it would squirt right off the front of his skull. "So let me get this straight." I say still chuckling a little. "You want to kill me because your brother was stupid enough to try and steal Imperial rations?!?" This apparently was too much truth for the large fellow, because his face actually 'did' squirt off his skull as he attempted to draw his blaster and do me in. As I was not nearly as far into my cups as it seemed, I easily avoided the first blaster shot by slamming my head into the bar and falling to the floor in a daze. All perfectly timed of course. The fellow was just lining up his second shot (and I was too far away from the bar in the verticle to avoid the baster the same way twice) a squad of Imperial hotel clerks rushed him and took us both into custody." Daishus tries to take a drink, shakes the flask a few times then turns it open end down. Nothing comes out. " And that is the story of me heroic entry to this wonderful venue. So as I am now totally out of anything worth drinking, I may as well tell you to duck."
Vor who had gone into a hybernation like state of stupor during the humans talking, peers at the human closely. "What mean, Duck?" Daishus, moving with a speed Vor never suspected, leaps from the floor, striking Vor a stunning blow and knocking him to the floor. "If you bite me I swear on my life, I will bleed down your throat till you choke to death!" Says Daishus covering his head with his arm. Vor is just begining to struggle to his feet as he is flattened against the floor by a blast that takes his breath away. In total silence (the bomb must have deafened him) he and Diashus are carried out of the cell through a new gaping hole and moved swiftly into the darkness of the city.
The cantina that Vor and Daishus entered was poorly lit (not that this mattered to Vor whos eyes were very sensitive) and very very crowded. Daishus motions Vor to the bar as he begins to speak in a rapid, low tone to the Mon Calamari bar tender. Vor notices that the droids that had effected the jail break are nowhere to be found and wonders what became of them. Daishus accepts a small key card from the bar tender and heads towards what looks to be a blank wall. Vor following behind does not see exactly what it is that Daishus does with the key, but suddenly a door appears in the seemingly solid wall. The two enter a very nicely appointed living area. Vor looking around notices that the living area borders on a huge storage area that is obviously not evident from the outside of the cantina. Vor sees at least 4 items that would be considered contraban on this planet amongst the plethora in the warehouse. "Ahhh home away from home!" Says Daishus, "Make yourself comfortable Vor. We are likely to be here for a short time. While the Imperials are no great shakes at efficiency, they will be looking for us and with our rather," he chuckles "unique looks, they would find us fairly quickly out in the city." Vor looks at the space where the door was just a moment ago and says, "Door go. Many much person see enter yes no? Yes!" Daishus waves a hand in dismissal. "Almost all of the patrons are Avians. While I may come under fire from my superiors for bringing a little too much Imperial attention to this safe house-smuggling den, Avians protect thier own. Also, if there were any non Avian patrons, they would have been too far away to see where we went. The tables all around the door to this place are reserved at all times for Avians only."
After a very good meal (strangely Vor had not thought Daishus would be able to cook) and some time spent washing and changing clothes (Vor had had to settle for what looked to be a long brown farmers cloak) Daishus turned on the Holocube to get the latest news. Vor spent his time looking at items that may be of value in the warehouse area.Daishus had offerd to let him have what he felt would help him along from here,"Take what you like, because I can tell already that you will be the death of me hahaha." Daishus had told him that as soon as he deemed it safe he would arrange transport for Vor off planet. "One of the privileges of having once been a pilot. Everyone owes me a favor." Vor had of course declined the offer till a later time. "Vor need remove person one more yes? Yes. Vor transport getting after?" "If you survive this mad quest of yours I will see that you get off planet safely. Though why I am putting my neck on the line a second time is beyond even my infinite wisdom." As Vor was packing the few items he had decided to take, the hidden door opened and in walked a Huge specimen of Wookie carrying a giant sized cargo pod on one shoulder. The wookie hooted a greeting to Daishus who waved back and seeing Vor's apprehension said, "Not to worry my scaley friend, this is Aaramar a fellow Avian. He specializes in.....shall we say 'moving things' from one place to another. Perfectly safe I assure you." The wookie, casting a suspicious glance at Vor, moves into the warehouse area and begins unpacking the cargo pod. Vor approachs Daishus and extends his hand in the human manner. "Vor thanking Daishus is! Vor many much debt repay you needed." "Well my large reptillian friend. Until we meet again, hopefully not in the same place as our first meeting hahaha, I wish you luck and hope to see you here again when you are done and again in need of my aid." Vor gives a firm but restrained handshake and moves to and through the hidden door into the cantina. As he is about to start for the door to the street, a hand reachs up and stops him. "Pardon me good sir, but please join us for a drink while you wait for the company at the bar to leave." Vor looking across the room sees a Stormtrooper patrol at the bar. They are leaving, scanning the room as they go. Vor hastily sits and grabs the proffered drink. "Thank you sir. The last thing we want is a shoot out in Amy's Cantina. I am Jaero. I saw you come in with Daishus and then the troopers came in so I assumed they wanted you. We have come to expect company where Daishus is involved. Though I must admit it has been several years since he was in real trouble. Might I ask, if you wouldn't mind terribly letting go of my hand now? It is quite painfull the way you are squeezing it." Vor looks down and realizes he clasped the others hand to remove it from his person and forgot to let it go when he sat. He hastily lets go and looks back towards the door the Imperials have just exited. "Vor sorry being is. Not crushing hand meant." Jaero smiles at Vor "That's ok. If I had a credit for everytime someone squished, squeezed, stepped on or crushed one of my body parts, I could buy the royal palace on Naboo. Not that I let just 'anyone' do such a thing to me you understand." He says laughing to himself. Looking at Jaero's face, Vor sees a person of honor and senses that there is more to this being than meets the eye. Vor notices that the Stormtroopers have moved out and away from the door to the cantina. "Vor go is now. Vor thank for stop trouble." "My pleasure sir. Always happy to help a friend of a fellow Avian. Good travels to you and hope to see you again, and remember should you ever have need, a friend of Daishus is a friend of Jaero." he says as Vor is walking towards the door. As Vor is passing the bar, a female Twi'lek grabs his arm in a vise like grip and tells him in a low menacing voice, "We don't like trouble here. If you come back make sure you don't bring anymore with you. I don't want my place messed up." Vor looks into her eyes and sees that he would not like what would happen if he did bring trouble back with him. He nods to the female in acknowledgment and she releases his arm and he, once more, heads for the exit. He notices as he enters the street that the name of the Cantina is The Lazy AT-AT and there is a small image of a dilapidated Imperial walker on the sign. Vor vows to himself never to bring any problems to this group that helped him as he starts off in the direction of the High Priests compound on the edge of the city. Even with his great ability to sense his surroundings, he does not note the presence of two beings following him covertly down the avenue.
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 8
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:05 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Vor could not believe his luck. He had made it all the way to the religious castes temple with not a single sign of an Imperial patrol. Once he thought he had seen a militia patrol rounding a corner moving away from him, but when he had turned the corner, there was no sign of them anywhere. Vor had been sure he would have to make two stops at areas he knew where heavily patroled by Imperials, but although he had caught the sound of a muffled fight near one of these areas, he had seen no Stormtrooper activity. The only thing bothering him at this point was the strange nagging feeling that he was being followed. If he were in fact being followed, whoever was back there was good! Too good, as he had used every trick he knew to lose any possible pursuit. With a shrug of his shoulders, he leaps the wall surrounding the temple. In the darkness not more than a block away, one of the figures whispers to the other. "We wait here. I am not sure exactly what he plans in there, but we don't need to bring anymore attention to our friends. Also I sense that he wears hate like a garment." "Shhhhh! Are you insane Jaero!?! He is right on the other side of the fence!!" "Give me some credit Sarrik. I would know if he could hear us. I got us this far undetected didn't I? And believe you me, he is good. Not as good as I, but good none-the-less. Anyway, he will need our talents, yours especially fairly soon. Now get comfortable we have a little wait ahead."
Vor notices in passing that all of the corpses from his previous visit are gone and the entire temple has been scrubbed clean. Even so, there seems to be no religious presense in the temple. Understandable. They have not had time to bring more lesser priests in from another city, or more likely, off planet. He makes his way, using all the stealth skills his old master taught him, to the audience room. Peering in from a half opened door, he sees that the room is unoccupied. Making his way across the room, past the large guilded throne of the High Priest, he reachs the door to the inner cloister. Here is where he will find his prey this night. After a thorough check for any detection devices or traps on the door, Vor places his head to the door, closes his eyes and concentrates on hearing anything from within.
"And with Vor given, by my most humble person, to the Imperials, the church gains a victory by the death of the only outcast since the beginning AND the favor of the Empire." There is a small chuckle. Vor recognizes the voice of the High Priest. "Yes Holyness. Turning him over to the Imperials was a stroke of genius." says a voice Vor recognizes as the Acolyte who visited him in is cell. "Let us celebrate. To the death of a thorn in the churchs side and to greater relations with the Empire!"
With a shattering crash, the huge door comes completely off it's mounting and hits the opposite wall of the chamber. Vor enters and kills the Acolyte with a single bone crushing blow to the throat. He turns and faces the High Priest who is choking on his mouthfull of wine and staring bug eyed at the apparition before him in total shock. "How...cough cough...How did you?" He falls into a fit of choking. Vor snares him and pounds on his back. "You don't get to die yet scum. Not till I chose to kill you!" As the priests choking subsides, Vor binds his hands and feet and tosses the struggling priest onto his shoulders. "We have a trip to make at the end of which you will get your fondest wish granted." The priest stops struggling and peers at Vor. "You get to meet your maker of course." Vor chuckles to himself as he starts towards the exit.
Vor had planned everything to the last detail. What he had not planned was for the bounty hunter that the Imperials had hired to capture him, hiding in the darkened outer cloister of the temple. Vor is just about to toss the bound priest over the outer wall when he is hit with a glancing stun blast. This is not the first time that Vor had wished that the second sense he seemed to have before an animal attacked worked on higher lifeforms as well. His left side all but useless, he staggers behind a statue and calls out, "Who being is? Why attacking Vor?" A voice comes from the left of where he was attacked saying,"Give it up Trand. You may be good at killing unarmed priests and Imperials but you are no match for a true warrior." Vor can hear the other moving, but knows he will not win this encounter without the use of his entire left side. His attacker slowly emerges from the shadows behind him. He turns and gets just a glimpse of the man before a very strange thing happens. The warrior raises his blaster, pointing at Vors head. Just then from the top of the outer wall there is a shout as something leaps towards the attacker. The startled warrior never sees what hits him from the air. Before he can even turn to look, he is on his back, his blaster flipping slowly through the air to land in the branches of a nearby hedge. Vor grateful for the reprieve watchs in silence of what happens next. The warrior stunned, but far from beaten, flips to his feet and scans the darkened courtyard. "I don't know who you are fellow, but you have just caused your own death!" Laughter comes from the shadows, seemingly from everywhere at once. "A bounty hunter eh? I haven't humbled a bounty hunter in nearly a month. And as you have recovered from my first attack so quickly, lets dance!" Again there is that terrible cry as a shadow detatchs itself from the general darkness and slams into the warrior.
Vor cannot make out this new figure other than to see that it is a male Zabrak. The two exchange a flurry of blows neither one giving ground. There is a loud CRACK and the bounty hunter staggers back, blood dripping from within his helmet. Vor recognises the defensive style. This must then be a Teras Kasi Master come to his aid. As the bounty hunter tries to regain his breath, the Zabrak points at him and says, "You are out of your league without your gun bounty hunter. Go and get your cowards weapon and let us end this." The bounty hunter makes his way to the hedge and retrieves his blaster. As he turns, obviously not as injured as he acted, he fires over and over at the spot where the Zabrak was but a moment ago. The Teras Kasi master runs towards the bounty hunter, taking only a single blast to the shoulder before he slams full force into the warrior. The bounty hunter flops to the ground, his head at an unnatural angle, feet drumming the ground. The zabrak walks over to the body and spits on it, then approachs Vor.
Until this moment Vor had been sure this zabrak had come to aid him, but now with the death of the bounty hunter and the others approaching, he is not so sure. "Why helping Vor?" he says standing up and attempting to look menacing. The zabrak stops and looks at Vor, "Look! I just saved your hide from the Imperial meat grinder. So if you wanna play 20 questions, save it for some other time ok? If we aren't over that wall and gone in the next twenty seconds, you get to try the wall alone and I don't care what Jaero or Daishus say!" The zabrak makes his way to the wall and stops looking back at Vor, "Well?" Vor goes to the tied priest and says, "It seems we are more alike than I first thought. We both are denied the torture and drawn out death of our most hated foe." Saying this, Vor reachs down and snaps the neck of the priest. The zabrak is beside Vor helping him towards the wall, "Could you have made that any louder? They probably heard that snap on Naboo!" With the aid of this zabrak fighter, they make thier way to a side street a block away from the temple. "Ahh Vor, we meet again." says a familier voice. Jaero comes from the shadows and grins at Vor in a knowing way. "We don't have time for 'this is your life' Jaero, in a few minutes this place will probably be swarming with troopers. And while that bounty hunter hardly made me break a sweat, I do NOT cherish the thought of fighting my way through endless waves of white armored idiots." Jaero smiles again at Vor and nods to Sarrik as he leads them back towards the Lazy AT-AT.

As the three rounded a corner some 4 blocks from the Lazy AT-AT, Jaero motioned for a halt. "What now Jaero? That bantha burger you had for dinner coming back to haunt you?" Sarrik says with a restrained laugh. Jaero rolls his large eyes and says "No. We can't go to the cantina. I have a bad feeling that if we do, we will be walking into a trap." Jaero looks at Vor an asks, "What do you think Vor?"

Vor looks at Jaero and thinks "What a strange thing to say!" Vor looks in the direction of the cantina, but feels no 'intuitive' danger relflex from that area. "Vor not danger feel." Jaero lowers his his head for a moment as if saddened by something then looks back to Sarrik. "Well, we don't want to walk into a possible trap. You and I both know that if LazyAmy had been able to, she would have sent out someone to warn us along the way." "True enough." Sigh "Well I guess there is nothing for it then." says Sarrik in a somewhat perturbed sounding voice. "Lets get to the spaceport. I hope Angus is is a good mood." Sarrik laughs to himself. "But he just came back from a run that paid fairly well so it should be fine."

"Absolutely not!" This from the man whom Sarrik had introduced as his partner Angus. "Did you have the sign outside repainted while I was away to read Transport AND free refugee moving services?!?!?!" Vor notices that Jaero is wearing a grin that he was trying desperately to keep from breaking into full laughter. "Come on Sarrik! It's hard enough getting items past the Imperials most times and you want me to smuggle a great huge lizard off planet?!?!"Angus is pacing around the small office waving his hands wildly in the air as he talks.

Sarrik takes a seat behind the second desk over near the hanger entrance. "Oh please Angus! It's not like I am asking you to try to hide a whole herd of blight infected dewbacks or something. And you know damn good and well that I would take him if I could but my ship is down for scheduled maintanance. Look," Sarrik says as he looks through his desk for something. "Daishus brought him into the cantina for protection. Jaero says he is on the up and up and can be trusted and while he is no great shakes in a fight, he is brave. Let's help the guy out eh?" It is just then that Jaero speaks for the first time since they entered the office.
"Angus, Vor needs safe transport off planet. You and Sarrik are two of Avians best ..um...movers. If it comes to a matter of credits, I will pay for his passage myself." So saying, Jaero starts to open a pouch on the left side of his belt. "Put your credit vouchers away Jaero. You know it isn't about cash when a fellow Avian is involved. It's the principle of the thing! I take this one and all of a sudden all the Avians are bringing 'friends' who got into trouble and need a lift."

Angus puts his head in his hands and slowly runs them down and off his chin. "Alright Alright! I will take him! This time! You..Vor is it?" Vor nods at the man. "Good get whatever you need together, we leave for Corellia just as soon as I can get preflight clearance. And so help me! If you are not on that ship when I lift, or you do not follow my orders after we are in flight, I will leave you here or space you without a second thought. Got it?!"
Vor looks to the man and nods again. He will do as he is told. "Good lets get going then. Sarrik, I was supposed to have a meeting with Jabba. Sent a message and let him know that I had some engine trouble and will not be back on planet for a few weeks." Sarrik nods and heads out of the building. "Jaero, get him settled and ready for space. And for once! Don't go looking into every compartment on my ship! There is some truely dangerous stuff in there this trip." Jaero nods and leads Vor towards the transport.

Vor nearly misses a step as he enters the hanger and sees the transport Black Rain for the first time.
Granted it at first seems to be a standard YT-2400, but the hull color is astounding. It is a polished black that seems as if it would be impossible to find in space even by the best sensors available. As if the black coating would simply swallow the searching beams of other ships seeking to find her. Vor notices after he regains his stride, that there are several hard to notice hull deformations. He thinks that the Black Rain is probably capable of giving a persuer a very nasty surprise if the need arose. Following Jaero into the ship he sees that the ship is maintained in meticulous fashion. Angus must truely love this ship, Vor thinks to himself.

"Ok, since we are going to be traveling together for a short time, here are the rules. One, never never never touch anything unless I say it is safe. Two, stay in the ray shielded suite unless I come and get you out. Three, if for some reason we do get boarded and searched, don't make a sound. That room has never been found out yet and I intend to keep it that way. Follow the rules and we will get along just fine." Angus looks at Jaero and says, "Alright Jaero, go tell Daishus that his fellow jail breaker is on his way out-system and that I should be back with the items he requested soon. Also tell him that he owes me big time for this one."

Jaero nods to Angus and turns to Vor. "Vor my friend, I will come to see you on Corellia as soon as I get my affairs here wrapped up. I believe you and I have much to discuss. Good journey to you and safe landing." Jaero exits the ship and Vor feels the engines begin thier muted yet undeniably powerful rythmic thrumming through the hull. And with the closing of the exit ramp, so ends a part of Vors life he will not soon forget.
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 9
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:16 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Finishing his meal, Vor punchs a key on the com panel and waits for a reply. "I'm a little busy here, so make it quick." comes the voice of Angus from the cockpit. "Vor room leaving yes?" While Vor had spent most of his forced captivity in the ray shielded suite aboard the Black Rain, still he was very eager to see somthing of this ship for himself. "I don't see why not. I will open the door by remote. Follow the lighted path to the control deck." Vor stands just as a panel in the wall slides open to allow him access to an access tube somewhere in the engine section of the ship. The sound of the engine is a loud roar here that Vor finds gives him a sense of security in his transports ability to keep him alive.
Vor follows the softly glowing strip till he finds himself looking into the frowning face of Angus MacGregor, captain and owner of the Black Rain. "Not that you have much choice in the matter, but I assume the accomodations are sufficiently comfortable?" he says, never taking his eyes off the navicomputer. "Vor happy being. Vor not dead, Vor happy." saying this he slides into the co-pilots seat which was obviously NOT made to fit his large frame. "Yes well, there are no guarantees that you will 'remain' alive but we can always hope. Oh and do be careful. I would hate to have to charge Jaero for the cost of repairing the leather on that seat!" Vor tries his best to sit lightly on the seat and not fidget too much.
"So." Angus says finally looking away from the navicomputer,"Might as well tell me how you fell in with such a disreputable a fellow as myself. I know that Sarrik didn't help you out of the kindness of his heart. That would require that he had one. So, before this Jawa programmed piece of pudoo navicomputer gets twitchy again go ahead with the story."
Vor had just reached the part of his tale where Sarrik saved him from the bounty hunter in the outer cloister of the temple on Tatooine when Angus looking shocked and angry stops him with a shout. "Bounty Hunter?!?!?!?! Why that son of a mangy wookie!! That explains why Sarrik was in such a hurry to get me moving." Angus at this point falls into a short discussion with himself about the probable parentage of his partner and what he plans to do to Sarrik when or 'if' he returns to Tatooine.
"As if I couldn't 'possibly' have enough trouble already, he goes and sends me off carrying a passenger that the Imperials want bad enough to hire a bounty hunter to capture him! Well let me give you a little warning friend." Vor is definately sure he does not much care for the tone Angus uses when saying the word friend. "If I get so much as a scorch mark on my ship because of you, you will find yourself walking to the nearest planet and Jaero can just find himself a new playmate!"
Vor stand up and glares down at the human. "You talking not good niceness!" As Vor starts to reach across the cockpit to pick Angus up by his tunic front, Angus shouts, "Rain, alert five!" "Aye, captain." says a voice from a console just overhead and Vor finds himself bound by a type of energy shackles. "Attack me in my own ship will you!?!? Well friend or no friend, noone attacks Angus MacGregor aboard the Black Rain. Nobody!" Angus is about to hit a button on the console when he notices that Vor is slowly but surely pulling his energy shackled hands apart. Vor, straining to the utmost of his strength moves his hands further and further apart till the energy shackles cannot hold any longer and dissipate.
He turns towards Angus just to find the barrel of a small but very deadly looking blaster firmly pressed to his head directly between his eyes. "I am not sure how you broke out of the energy cuffs, but if you even breathe I will kill you where you stand." The voice of the ship speaks again, "Captain, energy restraint system failure. Enemy strength beyond my ability to restrain. Suggest alternate course of action."
The next thing that Angus does, takes Vor completely by surprise. The human begins laughing and lowers his blaster, replacing it to a holster just inside his jacket. "Well. My ship seems to think I need to find a better way to deal with you. So, what say we start over. Especially since it seems you could probably tear the arms off a wookie with fairly little effort and my security system is now inoperable.
Vor is suprised by the sudden change of tone and general body language from the human and is not sure how to react. "Not killing Vor?" Angus chuckles," No, not killing Vor. Not till I find a brute squad to back me up anyway." Again the human laughs. Vor, not understanding this at all decides that he will restrain his natural anger and hope the human doesn't blast him in his sleep.
"Ok, so...Sarrik kills this bounty hunter..what next?" Vor continues his story up to where they entered the S.W.I.F.T.* hanger office. "Any idea who the bounty hunter was or who hired him?" Vor admits that no, he does not know this information. "Sarrik always was one to kill first then ask his questions. Well, I hate to break up this little party but I see by that flashing red light there that the update to my Navicomputer has yet again caused it to crash it's ROM. So if you will be so kind as to return to your stateroom, I will attempt to keep us from flying through the middle of a star."
Making his way back to the hidden room, Vor can only wonder what waits ahead on Corellia.

*Steel Wings Intergalactic Freight Transporters

Vor had found it hard to get his anger under control after the confrontation on the bridge of the Black Rain. He had returned to his hidden room and started the meditation ritual for the deepest of the emotional cleansings. He had been about halfway through when his senses told him that Angus MacGregor had entered the room. Vor opened his right eye enough to see that the human was not openly armed and was not in an attack posture, then closed the eye and continued the meditation. As he completed the ritual, feeling refreshed and no longer in the slightest angry, he nodded to let Angus know he knew he was there and that he was finished.

"Look Vor." Angus said, looking Vor right in the eye. "I apologize for what happened on the bridge. This has not been a good couple of days for me and when you told me that a bounty hunter was after you, I guess I just cracked a little. I hope you can understand it was not your actions alone that cause me to explode like that." Vor looked at the human and saw that his body language was saying the same thing his voice was, so he nodded to the human and said,"Not worry you human. Vor never many much angry except religious Doshan. Vor many angry, Vor meditate, or maybe all make angry dead. Same thing angry not anymore. yes? Yes!" Vor truely wished the human spoke Doshan so he could explain in depth, but his broken standard was the best he could do for the time being.

Angus looks up as if startled and jumping to his feet heads for the door. A full two seconds later the computer voice can be heard to say, "Captain, we have just encountered a gravitic anomoly which has pulled us out of light speed, please report to the bridge." Vor was amazed. It seemed as is Angus knew the feel of his ship so well, (Vor had been unable to feel the difference between sub light and the transition to light speed, so smootly made was the Black Rain), that he had felt the ship come out of light speed before the computer had.

Vor punchs the button on the com console to see if it is safe to leave his hide out. "Listen Vor, we have some serious problems here. Even if they are not looking for you, the chances of that room staying hidden if we are boarded are not good so you might as well come up here. I may need some help even if it is untrained." Vor is running, stooped over, towards the bridge before the com console switchs off. Looking out the forward ports as he slides into the co-pilots seat takes his breath away. There are no less that three Imperial Star Destroyers and an Imperial Interdictor ship. This then is what pulled them out of hyperspace. "We have some cargo that we don't dare let them catch us with, so at this point I say we play it cool and hope the miss us." Vor, looking at the number of Imperial Tie Fighters, thinks the chances of not being searched are fairly slim. Angus, as if reading Vor's mind says, "You know what, you're right, let's get the hell out of here." So saying he turns the ship directly away from the Interdictor and gives it full power.

"Normally this would be a two pilot ship Vor, but with the computer I had specially built for her, I can do most of the flying myself. What I cannot do, and what I don't trust the computer to do is shoot. Do you know how to fire a ship mounted cannon?" Vor looks at the human and remains silent as he tries to remember if it is within his scope of knowledge. "OooooKaayyy. I will take that as a no. Tell you what, follow the lighted path to the upper turret hatchway and get strapped in. I will give you instructions and hope you figure it out before the Imperials catch up to us. Especially since I see no less than six ties coming up fast."

Vor makes his way to the indicated area and straps in as instructed. "Ok Vor, the handles in front of you move the cannon in the verticle. The foot switchs move the cannon in the horizontal. Try it a few times." Vor moves the guns around a bit noticing that they react instantly and perfectly to his commands almost as if he only needs to think the action for it to happen. "Ok, I am going to release a taget drone, the green switch on the main panel will power the guns up and squeezing the handles arms them. The finger switchs are for firing." Vor feels a small *thunk* as the target is released. The target has moved not more than a few meters from the ship before it is vaporized by a single bean of energy. "Hot damn! You are a natural! Now, those ties are gonna be a little tougher to hit, but I have a surprise or two in store for them so don't worry if you miss your shots." Angus clicks off and Vor is left in silence waiting for the small Imperial fighters to close to within cannon range. Suprises indeed, Vor thinks as he notices the range markers for the lasers. This cannon has a longer range than the Imperials, which is definately *NOT* the standard outfit for this type of ship.

"Here they come." Angus says over the com. Vor hears the sound of a hatch opening somewhere aft of the cannon mount, but before he can call Angus, the tie fighters are within cannon range and he begins to fire. He takes out the rear most of the ties with his first shots. At almost the same instance he sees the three ties closest to the Black Rain disintegrate as if in slow motion. As he is wondering what high tech weapon could cause such damage, Angus comes over the com again. 'Hahahahaha that'll teach em to get to close! Twenty five thousand one half inch size alloy ball bearings! Too small to show up on avoidance radar and with no shield on the ties, absolutely deadly!" While Vor was distracted, the remaining two tie fighters have closed and begin to pound the Black Rain's shields. "Damnit Vor! Get them off my ship!"

Vor swivels the gun but has no shot. The wiley Imperials are staying low and shooting at the belly of the ship. Angus is obviously trying to get the ties into Vors range by turning the Black Rain this way and that, but he is having no luck. "This is NOT the time for the imperials to leran how to fly!" The computers voice makes it's way into the cannon area. "Shields breached, Hull breached. Complete atmosphere loss in eight minutes. Recommend repair or abandon ship." "That's it Vor. The power coupling to the cannons is shot, hurry up down here to the bridge!" Vor makes his way to the bridge. The ship is rocked by the ties relentless attack. "Warning! Hull breach in multiple areas! Total loss of atmosphere in two minutes!" Comes the computer warning.

As he enters the bridge, Angus tosses a bundle into his chest. "Best hurry up putting on that environment suit on. It's gonna be short on oxygen here in a minute!" Vor struggles into the suit wondering why the Black Rain is equipped with an environment suit for a Doshan. He has just finished the final check on his suit as the com in the helmet says. "Warning! The ship is now in zero atmosphere!" Looking at Angus he sees that the human seems to have no intention of abandoning his ship, nor of surrendering. "Come on you beast! Just three more seconds and we are gone!" Vor sees the two tie fighters pass by the fore of the ship. now that the laser cannon is non functional they have returned to thier standard circling attack pattern.

"Ah the Imperial mind! Ever easy to anticipate." Saying this, Angus hits a red button near his thumb and two concussion missiles streak towards the two ties. "And that, will teach them to turn thier Backs to me!" Says Angus as the two ties are blown to bits. "Well, no time for repairs just yet. Hold on Vor, with the damage, this might be a little uncomfortable." he says as he pushs a switch foward and the Black Rain Lunges into Light Speed.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 10
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:17 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
The rest of the trip to Corellia was a nightmare of minor system failures followed by major system failures. Vor thought that Captain MacGregor must be one of the best ship mechanics in the galaxy as he managed to stay just ahead of a total shipwide system shutdown. Even so, the only systems still functioning when they reached the jump to sublight were the engines and the communications gear. Vor had never thought much about it, but he was sure now that he hated being weightless. The look that Angus had given him as his lunch clouded the main port had reminded Vor a little too much of the earlier incident with the Captain. Angus of course had no problem with being weightless it seemed and was quite agile as he made his way from place to place fixing what would be needed to make the landing on Corellia.

Vor was strapped securely into the co-pilots seat and had been given orders to stay there on pain of having his knee's lasered off. He could just make out the statements that Angus, constantly muttered to himself while working, over the comlink in the helmets. "Always something! Never an easy run..ooohhh nooooo. Not for good old MacGregor. Ahh there it is. One more turn of the spanner and." Vor was suddenly thrust deep into his seat by what seemed the weight of a bantha on his chest. He was just able to make out Angus's cry through the fog of pain that accompanied the great weight. Undoing the straps, Vor thrust himself erect and stumbled in the direction he believed Angus had been working last. He found the captain at the bottom of a small accessway attempting vainly to clutch what was obviously a broken leg. "Vor" came the strained voice. "Spanner........tu...turn...count...counter clockwise...half turn....hurry." Vor fighting the pain he felt, lowered his arm into the hatchway and moved the tool as instructed. Immediately he felt the crushing weight fall away. There is a heavy sigh of relief from Angus. "It's a good thing you Trandoshans are stronger than a dewback. Help me out of here to the medical unit." Vor reachs down and carefully pulls Angus from the accessway with his right arm. "Damn I am glad I didn't kill you earlier." Angus chuckles, but Vor can see the human is in great pain.

After getting basic repairs done on his leg, Angus seemed about to head back to the command deck. Vor didn't think this was a very good idea and told the captain so by glaring at him. "Don't give me that look. I am tougher than i look too Vor. And besides, someone has to pilot this ship. The computer is good(when the damn thing is actually functional) but in it's current condition it might quite all together and fly us into Corellia instead of landing there." Angus again makes to get up, looks suddenly at the hull of the ship and sits back in the medical unit. "Well that takes care of that. The engines just went offline along with everything else. Well, nothing else I can do for this leg till we get atmosphere back into the Rain. You are about to get a crash course my tall green friend in emergency ship repair."

Vor had followed all of Angus' instructions to the letter and had managed to make sufficient repairs that the Rain was once again able to hold heat and air. Angus was at this time under general anesthetic in the medical unit and would remain so for quite some while. Vor having kept his atmosphere suit on, attached the helmet to the recycler pack on his back. He had made sure that the captain was shut up tight as well just in case his repairs were not as good as he hoped they were. He knew better than to attempt any further repairs to the Rain. While he was very very good at taming animals, he didn't know a spanner from a sprocket and would probably do more damage than good. The heating units had not as yet returned the Rain to an acceptable temperature for humans, and for Vor it was barely tolerable. He would definately need to oil all his scales as soon as it was safe to do so.

Making his way to the command deck, Vor decided to see if the computer would still work. "Computer." He said. There was is no reply. Vor remembers how Angus had talked to the ship and tried again. "Black Rain. You speak Vor?" There is a horrible electronic scream followed by the frozen speaker on the left side of the deck exploding. Form the right hand speaker came the voice of the crippled ship."Black Rrrrrrain...n..nn. State commmmmmmandddddd" Vor thought that this did not sound very promising but went on, "Ship Status!" he barked, hoping that the computer would actually answer him. "V..vvvvvVoice Nnnnnot rec rec recognized. Pl...pl....please restate state state." Vor was at a loss. The ship would never mistake his voice for that of the captain. Looking around he notices that there is a computer input terminal to the right of the co-pilots chair. He quickly types in (request ships status) and is suprised to see a schematic appear on the main screen showing all the damage. The ships voice comes from the speaker once more. "Alllllll For for forward velocity hasbeenstoppedbybrakingth th th thrusters. Shi Shi Shieldsarenonopera ble ble ble. All All All enginefunctionnonoperableatthis time time time."

Well, thought Vor. At least we won't hit anything while I wait for Angus to get a little better. He decides that since there really is nothing more he can accomplish here, he may as well go check on Angus and get a large meal into himself. As he enters the room containing the medibed, he notes that the status display shows 18.1273 hours till Angus is considered to be able to be awakened. He makes his way to the galley and pulls a prepack from the storage locker. As usual with prepacks it is wrapped in non descript gray foil with no markings at all. Vor places it in the machine that will reconstitute the meal into something edible and frowns as he smells what he has selected. "Bantha steak." He thinks. "I hate bantha steak. This just is not my day." he mutters to himself as he begins to eat, hoping things get better when captain MacGregor is awakened.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 11
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:21 pm 
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The wait had been a long a boring one for Vor. He had slept recently and felt no need for more just yet. Vor had found long ago that he needed large amounts of sleep at certain times. Beyond those times, a short nap here and there was sufficient to keep him at his peak for long periods of time. This also seemed to hold true for his nutrient comsumption. He noted that humans seemed to eat nearly constantly. Thier systems must be horribly inefficient. Humans were indeed an enigma to Vor. Firstly there seemed to be far too many of them. He had noticed that they seemed to far outnumber the many other known races. Vor had a theory that this was due to the humans ability to adapt and change to nearly any environment that was in the least hospitible to life.

One of the many things Vor could not bring himself to think on was the fact that humans kept thier genitalia on the outside of thier body. This seemed like a terribly vulnerable body design and Vor wondered why more human armor or clothing was not made to remove this vulnerability. Vor considered putting his helmet back on as he raised the emvironmental suits thermal unit to a higher setting yet. The heating units in the Black Rain were clearly not functioning at 100% and the cold was making Vor feel slugish. Getting to his feet, he decided to make one more tour of the ship to see if he could find anything that may be of use to him till Captain MacGregor came out of the healing unit. As he came to the storage area of the ship, he noticed that there seemed to be a small alcove he had missed on his previous tour. A ceiling panel had fallen and partially blocked the alcove. Removing the panel Vor found that this was a droid recepticle which was currently occupied by an older model astromech droid. Looking carefully at the small droid Vor saw it's number was in the B series. Looking at the control panel next to the alcove, Vor decides that it may still be undamaged and hits the activate button.

The small black droid disconnects from the power slot, rolls forward and stops just in front of Vor. "Droid. Fixing ship yes no? Yes! You fixing ship go!" This seemed to be all that was needed, as the droid started towards the engine compartment with a hoot and a whistle. By the time Vor had completed his tour and come to the conclusion that there was nothing else he could do to be of help to the stricken ship, he noticed that the temperature inside the ship was much more to his liking. The small droid must be working on the life support of the ship as a main priority. Just as Vor enters the medical bay, the medical unit opens and Angus MacGregor stis up looking much less pained than he did when he was placed in the unit.

"No offence Vor, but you are not what anyone needs to wake up to see. And yet, I find I am strangely happy to se that scared face of yours." He grins and gets out of the now open unit with Vor's help. "So, I take it the repairs held and that you have already fixed the Rain back to her usual well lubricated running condition." Saying this he makes his way to the control deck. Vor, not certain if this is what the humans call humor or not, follow Angus. Angus strips off his environmental suit and slips into the command seat. "Rain. Status." Vor waits to see if the human will get angry when he hears the stuttering voice of the ship. "Ships status is as follows captain:" says the ship. Vor breathes a sigh if relief that the small droid must have fixed the computers voice circuit.

"Engines are offline. Life support is at 92% and rising. Computer is 51% with multiple control junction failures. Computer is unable to effect self repair at this time." Vor noticed that Angus seemed to be getting more and more unhappy as each item was listed off. "Astromech droid currently performing repairs on all critical systems. Estimate repair of all critical systems to within acceptable usage standards in 8.952 hours. Engine damage status unknown. All sensors in engine compartment non operable. Hull repaired to 75% integrity. Warning! Hull will not withstand more than 27 standard atmospheres external pressure. End report."

Angus ran his hands slowly from his head down over his face before turning to Vor and speaking. "Well, we aren't dead and that my friend is more than I hoped for when I slipped with the gravity generator adjustment." Turning back towards the ships display he says, "Rain access computer log, prior to engine failure there was a gravity spike. Provide specifics please." "Aye, captian. A misalignment of the manual gravity control hub caused internal gravity to reach 20.235 standard gravities for exactly 27.599 seconds. This was followed by a return to 0.987 standard internal gravity. End Log."

"Vor." Angus looks away from the ships display with a look on his face that Vor cannot remember ever seeing on a human before. "I owe you my life. If it hadn't been for you, that gravity would have killed me for sure. Though I was not aware that Trandoshans were immune to high gravity, I certainly am glad it is so." Vor chose not to correct the human. If he wished to believe that Doshans could withstand unlimited gravity, let him. The fact of the matter was that Vor had been at the limit of his ability just to have gotten the short distance he had moved in that gravity field. "And I have to assume it was you that activated the repair droid. The computer couldn't have done it with all the damage it sustained, so yet again I am in your dept." Vor still could not understand the expression that Angus was wearing and it was starting to make him very nervous despite the calm words from the human. "While I am not happy about the damage to the Rain, I do feel that I owe you an apology." Vor accepted the humans hand with his own saying, "Angus mad being not, Vor ship is breaking?" Angus looked puzzled for a moment, then broke out with a laugh that made Vor jump slightly. "Hahahahahahaha. Well Vor my friend, unless you have tha ability to be in the Rain 'AND' in that Tie fighter that did for us, I hardly think that You caused the damage hahaha."

After several hours of moving from place to place and doing things that Vor couldn't begin to comprehend, Angus seemed ready to try and start the engines. "Well, here goes nothing." he says flipping a switch. The lights in the control cabin dim as the hum of the engines climbs to it's usual smooth sound. "Yes!" says Angus in what Vor can only describe as pure joy. "Thank you Rain. I knew you would never leave me to die out here in space!" Angus powers up the navicomputer and begins to look through what seems to be charts of the planet Corellia. "Now lets hope the Avians temporary landing field is not closed for repairs which it usually is, because there is no way that I am landing the Rain at a public field where I will have to explain all this damage to the local Imperials."

During the flight inbound to Corellia, Angus tells Vor about the Avian Technology and Trade group. It seems that Avian is a fairly large group of like minded people that have gotten together over time to build thier own city for trading the items hey manufacture. Angus explains how the group contains many different companies much like the one he and Sarrik run together. Most of the beings in Avian are manufacturers of one sort or another with various and sundry support personel, such as a security group of militia for the city and prospectors that find them materials. Through many questions, Vor finds that there are creature handlers like himself as well as armorers, arms makers, droid engineers, architects as well as entertainers and many other professions all under the Avian name. The city itself is having some difficulty in becoming recognized as Avian City and in gaining the permits to build a proper spaceport due to the local building restrictions and Imperial red tape.

"They have however managed to build a covert landing field for those of us that feel just a little safer not using the public ports. And if I can just remember the correct frequency for the beacon...Ahhh there it is. Here that Vor? That is the sound of home!" Vor hears the faint beep beep coming from the Navicomputer. "Well Vor, strap in and we will get landed and fixed up by people that know the meaning of quality work and friendship." Angus looks Vor directly in the eye and says, "Oh and one thing. Let's not mention the thing about the gravity eh? I do have a reputation to maintain. Hahahahaha." Vor is wondering what this means as the Rain hits the upper atmosphere and begins it's descent to what Angus called Home.
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 12
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:26 pm 
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The approach to the Avian landing pad had been an exercise in fear on Vor's part. While Angus had seemed to be entirely calm about the whole matter, Vor had noticed the sweat beading and rolling down his face as he fought the controls of the nearly crippled ship. Twice it had seemed as if the ship would spiral into the ground at a speed that would most assuredly have blown it to tiny tiny pieces and somehow Angus had managed to get it back under control. "Never fear Vor, I have been in much worse and walked away in less than five pieces." Vor was strangely not relieved by, nor did he believe, the captains glib comments. "There it is," said Angus jutting his nose in the direction of the main port as he continued to strain at the controls,"home and safety."

Vor could see the group of buildings where Angus indicated. What he did not see was a landing pad. "Angus landing is sand being?" he said speaking his concern. "No Vor, I would never put my ship down on that dangerous a footing. Just the other side of the town hall there is a pad of permacrete that is just big enough for me to put the Rain down on." Vor was wondering just exactly how Angus was going to put down on an area just the size of the ship with the limited amount of control the ship was giving him. As they came over the hall, Angus tilted the nose high up and blasted the landing jets till they were nearly stopped in space then cut off all engine power.

Slowly Vor awakened to a familiar face. "Jaero?" "Aye my friend. You have taken a nasty wound to the head in that miracle of a landing Angus made. They are taking Angus to the hospital and as soon as they clear the main hatchway, I will be helping you out as well." "Ship down being? Angus many much hurt?" Vor asked, as he could remember nothing after Angus had cut all the engines. "Yes, the ship is down. If she will ever fly again is a question better asked of a fortune teller than a tech I think. Captain MacGregor will be ok. This ship did, and always has, protected her owner. He is out cold but seems uninjured. They are going to make sure he doesn't have any internal injuries."

His attempt to shake his head, in order to clear his vision, was stopped by Jaero. "Unless you want to lose a goodly portion of your brain, I would stay still till we get you over to the hospital." The trip to the hospital was a thousand year trip through hell for Vor. He was unconscious more than he was awake. He was very very grateful for Jaero's support. The Avian Doctor took one look at him, gave him and injection, and Vor remembered no more.

Voices..."Not sure if he will wake up. Could be this minute, could be never. We just have to wait and see." No names or faces, only the voices in the darkness. "..had better wake up you scaley jinx. If the Rain got smashed up for nothing I swear I will climb into your head and drag you out screaming!" The voices give way to memories, memories of things that have not happened. Master Kra and Master Gresh standing proudly beside him as he is awarded master status in a Teras Kasi temple. Of himself astride the Krayt Dragon that he and Master Gresh have just finished training. Then again the comforting yet horrifying darkness returns.

"Open your eyes. That's it, slowly. You have been out of it for a long time my friend." The light is dim as Vor opens his eyes to see three figures standing over the bed he occupies. Jaero and Angus MacGregor to the left and a being he does not know to the right. The being leans over and says,"How are you feeling Vor? Up to a few tests to check your recovery?" Vor nods. He feels very weak. While going through the exam, the doctor explains that Vor has been in a coma for nearly a year and was not expected to recover. "Aye, but I told them if they gave up I would shoot them each in the knees and weld thier chair droids to your bed." Says the familiar voice of Captain MacGregor. The doctor looks at Vors friends and says,"As far as I can see he is completely healed. Vor, you will be a little weak, you have been given automated muscle stimulation, but there is always some atrophy even so. Take it easy for a while and you should be good as new within the month."

He found that with very little aid he was able to stand and leave the building with his two friends. As they came out to the street thay halt for a moment. "I told you Vor. Home and safety." Vor noticed that Angus seemed to be in a strange mood. It was as if the near death in the ship had changed the man somehow that Vor could not grasp. "You'll be glad to hear that the Rain is nearly repaired and has had a few new extras added just in case she has to fight again." This made Vor very happy as he had seen the bond that Angus had with his ship and it pained him to think the human may have to find another after the crash.

Angus and Jaero chatted about the general goings on in Avian City as they walked with Vor. They stopped in front of a modest dwelling. "Well Vor, what do you think?" Inquired Jaero. "My superiors thought that anyone who saved grumpy old Angus MacGregor from the death he so richly deserved should be made a welcome guest of Avian City. Angus and I pitched in a few credits and here it is. Your own home." Vor did not know what to say. He had not had a "home" since the death of his Master so long ago. He was about to speak to Angus when a voice down the street shouted,"Imperial Patrol!!!" Jaero and Angus hurried Vor into the house and opened a secret door that was placed under the heating unit.

Sometime later, Jaero and another familiar face, showed up at the opening trap door and helped Vor out to the living are of the home. Sarrik looked angry, but then Vor remembered that Sarrik always seemed to be angry about something. "Vor, I hate to bring bad news. We had a meeting and decided that you are just too hot right now to keep here in Avian City. Even Angus was forced to admit that there seems to be an inordinant amount of Imperial interest in you. We are going to relocate you back to Tatooine with a new identity." Vor was not sure exactly what was happening. Again he was about to lose a home that was his only a very short time. "I don't like it either Vor," said Jaero. "but I will be going with you. You will need protection till you have your strength back and I think I may have a thing or two to teach you also."

Sarrik grunted derisively at Jaero's statement and went on, "Angus wanted to take you himself, but he was finally convinced that the Rain was just too well known to keep you hidden and him alive. Besides, after what happened last time, I am not sure we could afford to get the ship rebuilt!" Jaero, ignoring Sarriks remark went on, "We have arranged for passage on a general transport shuttle to take you and I to Tatooine. From thre we will make our way to a place I know which should be safe."

Vor was only partially listening. Again his life was coming apart. Again those he cared for were being harmed by those pursuing him. He vowed that he would never again let his personal danger extend to the pain or death or a friend. He would go to Tatooine with Jaero, but whether he stayed with him was another story. he would not risk the life of these people that had made a home for him, a total stranger

The trip to the public port was fairly boring. There had been that group of large lizard like animals that Vor did not recognize, that had stopped the transort for about an hour but other than that, boring. Jaero and Vor checked in at the terminal and sat to await the call for thier transport. "I am sorry things turned out as they did Vor. I think you would bring many good things to Avian if you could relax and stop running." Vor had been thinking pretty much the same thing. Why exactly was the Empire so keen to have him killed? Was it even the Imperials who had put the price on his head or was it the Religious Caste on Dosha? His thoughts were interupted by Jaero nudging his shoulder. "That's ours, let's go."

The accomodations were typical of general transport. Sparse and just barely enough atmosphere to keep you alive for the trip. Vor was sure that the first class passengers did not have such poor travel conditions but he was far to proud to complain. Jaero came back from the food dispenser and whispered to Vor, "Don't look right away, but there is a Trandoshan over there who has been following us since we got into the spaceport and he seems inordinantly interested in our movements." Jaero spilled a small amount of water on Vor. While jumping up to avoid a complete soaking, Vor looked and caught sight of the doshan in question. He wore the black central crest paint of an assassin but did not have the duel side crests painted red that would have marked him as a bounty hunter.

Vor explained this to Jaero as best he could. "Would an assassin be so open about his interest in a target?" asked Jaero. "No." was the only comment that Vor made. He was trying to figure out why the doshan had not killed him on sight. He was about to take a drink of the water Jaero had provided when he thought better of it and looked at Jaero to get his attention. "Jaero not eating food being. Maybe poison is yes no? Yes!" Jaero looked suspiciously at the small portion of fish he had about to put into his mouth and slowly lowered it back onto the plate. "Don't look now, but here comes our assassin." Jaero said.

Vor turned as the shadow of the other doshan fell over his shoulder. Speaking in Doshan he asked, "What can we do for you assassin?" he was not worried about using the caste designation of the other. If he had wanted to be secret he would not have worn his castes colors. "Hsss. You are the one who is Vor?" asked the other. "I am called Vor Son of Gresh who is son of Kra. Again I ask, what can we do for you?" He asked rising to meet the other doshan eye to eye. Looking the other over, Vor noticed that the assassin seemed to be slightly smaller in build than himself but seemed also to be strong as hull alloy and totally unafraid.

The doshan gave the salute of his caste and said, "I am called Venta Gresh." Vor was utterly shocked by first the salute as given to an equal then by the family name that Venta had given. "I am a son of Gresh from the second hatching and I greet you in the manner of brothers." So saying he grasped both Vor's arms lightly. Vor was too shocked to speak or move until he saw Jaero slowly working his way around to the back of Venta, obviously to get a better strike when trouble started.

"One moment brother, my friend will require calming before we may continue our greeting." Vor looked at Jaero and said "Not being enemy. Is brother of Vor being." Jaero looked at him in a most peculiar manner. "A brother you say? And you didnt't recognize him earlier when I pointed him out?" asked Jaero. Vor saw no reason to try and describe the mating habits and birthing or doshans with Jaero, so he simply nodded yes. Jaero threw his arms in the air, rolled his large eyes and said, "Then I take it I may actually eat my food now without fear of death?" Vor again simply nodded is assent and turned his attention back to Venta.

"Your friend seemed to think I had poisoned the food." Said Venta in an amused manner. "As if a doshan assassin caste would ever be so obvious about hitting a Mark. I have been searching for you since I was made a Master Assassin and was given the stones of my past and learned that Gresh was father of my hatching. May I call you brother KraGresh? I find the name the elder gave you distasteful and inappropriate." Vor, still somewhat in shock at all these revelations said, "My name is, as it always has been. My people have marked be as Outside-The-Code, and so I shall call myself. Not with the shame they would have me show, but in pride at being the only doshan who is Vor!"

Venta seemed himself to be shocked by this but acceeded, "Vor it is then, brother. I have come at this time to warn you that your life is in danger." Jaero nearly chokes on his fish as Vor breaks out in a roaring laugh. "And have you just learned this Venta?" Venta looks at him with an unhappy look, "No, and this is not the danger you have faced all your life simply by being who you are. There is a new danger to you and I am sad to tell you it is I that am that danger." Vor looking at Venta in a new and angry light says, "Well then *brother* tell me of why you are a danger to me and why you are taking time to warn your victim?"


Jaero, feeling the sudden change in the atmosphere between the two trandoshans, continues eating while moving to a position where he has a clear line of attack should it become needed. "I will gladly tell you all just as soon as you tell your pet there that he is about to be very seriourly injured. While I am taking the time to speak with you, brother, I will kill 'it' without compunction should it attack me." says Venta as he glares at Jaero. Vor, loath to turn his back on a potential enemy, speaks to his friend without moving. "Jaero being many much danger yes no? Yes! Moving to talking us allow private." Trusting his friends judgement, Jaero moves away just far enough to be out of the new trandoshans sight, but still close enough, he believes, to aid Vor in a fight and continues his meal.

"Now 'brother', tell me your tale and let us see how it ends." "As I stated, I also am a son of Gresh. He was the father of my hatching. I am told by the stones that your hatching was of a later time than mine which makes me the older of the two." Vor did not comment. There were usually many older sisters or brothers of the average doshan so he felt no need to defer to this one. He also felt no need to inform Venta that he was an Adopted son of Gresh. Venta seemed to be sure that he was in fact a natural son. This may bring some advantage. "My master wished me to take his place when my training was complete and he had reached the ending of his Time." Vor noticed that Venta was absolutely still while talking. There was a sort of coiled spring feeling about him that was unmistakable. "When I finally passed my Trial of Passage, my master began to show me the stones of the caste history and our Life-Code."

"While the Codes of a caste are secret onto that caste only, I feel you will not understand what I say unless I tell you of one of ours. Our Code requires that we honor any request from the religious caste in matters of heresy." Vor was beginning to see where this was going and was not happy about what was going to take place. "My master then told me of a doshan born Outside-The-Code that had been hunted by the religious caste for some time and had evaded each attempt to end his miserable life." Venta went on without pause as if totally unconcerned. "I would not reach for that blaster if I were you brother. If the life of your pet means anything to you, you will listen to my entire tale. I have placed the first part of a two part poison in his food ration. it will not effect him unless he is hit with this dart which contains the second part. It is quite a slow and painful poisin I am told."

Vor had not even been aware that he had been reaching for the blaster at his hip. Using a weapon was so much outside his general way of thinking that he was in fact shocked that he had done it at all. As he eased his hand back to the tabletop, Venta went on. "Much better. My master had obviously not read the stones of my personal history even though he had passed them down to me. Or it is possible that he had and was testing my loyalty to my chosen caste and to himself. He charged me with the task first and foremost, of making sure that the stain of the outsider was removed from the doshan faith during my Time as Master of the Assassin caste."

"I of course assured him that I would. I then inquired about the section of the stones that spoke of a bounty on the head of the vor." Venta's use of his name in it's descriptive sense was obviously meant to anger him. In this respect the assassin failed, Vor was far to used to his name and status for such a blatent attack to work. "My master informed me that the religious guild had not placed the bounty as a whole. The bounty was placed by the mate of an acolyte you killed on Naboo quite some while ago." Well, thought Vor, that explains one of the thorns in my side at least. "As to the Imperial involvement, they believe that you may be." Venta smiled for a moment. "More than you appear."

"It seems they lost an entire squad of troopers to a large swarm of womprats. They beileve that you used" Venta closed his eyes for the slightest moment in thought. "what was it they called it? Ah yes..The Force, whatever that may be, to command the rats to attack thier squad." Venta chuckled. "I think they would see this Force of thiers if they looked in the mirror. They seemed quite obsessed with it's complete removal. I have not read all of the stones of the castes history so I am not sure what exactly a 'Jedi' is, but I assured them that You were not one. You and I both know Gresh taught you to speak to creatures as he did, nothing special about it."

Venta moved slightly making Vor tense for combat. "Just so you know brother, I take no pleasure in carrying out my orders. I could have sent a lower member of the caste, but I felt that you deserved someone of my caliber to make sure the job was done quickly and painlessly." Vor snapped out of his seat, sending the table flying across the eating area of the ship. With a speed that even he cannot believe, he grabs both of Venta's wrists preventing him from shooting the lethal dart at Jaero. "And now 'brother' " Vor spits the word into Ventas face."You will find what happens to those that would kill the one who is Vor!"

Jaero had been ready to assist Vor as soon as he had moved, but he got the sense that he had best leave this to his friend and went into a stand by stance incase things went in Venta's favor. Venta was strong there was no doubt to that. But Vor had spent his entire life fighting for his life against both intelligent beings and dumb creatures and he had come out the victor enough times to stay alive. Slowly Venta's arms were forced apart. Vor could see the suprise on the others face as he bore down and exerted his full strength. Even in his weakened condition he was far more than a match for his so-called brother.

"I had heard that you were in a state of weakness brother" Venta spoke between grunts of exersion."It would seem that you are not as weak as I was led to believe." Vor, feeling the strain of this conflict did not have breath for talking, and contunied to force Venta's arms further and further apart. Venta spoke yet again, "Brother please, If you kill me, there will just be another. And anyone but myself will not be so kind. Is your life as a hunted outcast worth so much to you? I would think you would relish an end to it." Venta may have meant to say more, but just then there was a terrible cracking sound deep inside Venta's chest and he passed out.

Vor flung the body away from him as if it were trash aimed at the disposal. Jaero approached the unmoving trandoshan, but Vor waved him away. "Being dead yes no? Yes! Vor killing many much doshan. Vor knowing is." Jaero moved to his friends side looking concerned. "Are you alright Vor? In your weak state I was sure he would do you in." Vor decided not to tell Jaero how close he had been to death. The poison would be a one of a kind designed by Venta for his personal use alone. Jaero would never need to fear it's activation as Vor had crushed the dart in Venta's wrist shooter.

Jaero turned suddenly and grabbed Vor, spinning him around and pointing. The body of Venta was nowhere to be seen. "I thought you said he was dead Vor!" Said Jaero as he scanned the room completely as if he could by will power alone find what had happened to the body. Vor was stunned. He had heard the cracking of Venta's lung casing. This was always certain, if not immediate, death to a doshan.

This was very bad. He was sure that, even though the Imperials were no longer looking for him, that his brother would be lurking for him somewhere. And nest time there would be no warning before he struck. Vor was certain at this moment that he would rather face the Imperials twisted Justice than have the dangerous assassin forever waiting for his chance to strike.


Vor spent the remainder of the trip to Tatooine in a futile search for Venta. He was sure that the damage he had caused the assassin was of such a painful and serious nature that he had not just gotten up and walked away after the encounter. Someone had to be working with him, it was the only explination. But who, and where had they hidden the injured assassin? Jaero had been quite upset when Vor had explained about the chemical additive that Venta had put in his meal. "What do you mean not exactly poisoned?!?!?! Either I am or I am not!! You cannot be sort of poisoned!" It had taken nearly the entire trip to assure him that the chances of Venta being able to remake the second part of the poison were very very slim. Jaero still did not seem entirely calm about the whole situation.

As they exited the spaceport, the heat hit them like a solid wall which took even Vor's breath away. "Vor, I will need to get some supplies, but what I get and how much will be dependant on how long we will be away from a store." Vor glared at his friend. It was almost as if the Human had the ability to see his thoughts as they swirled inside his head. "And don't glare at me. I knew before we left Avian city that you would take the first opportunity to leave the safe house we set up and head into the wilderness. So, how long WILL we be out in this dreadful heat?"

This question caught him unprepaired. Until this moment he had not had any set time in mind that he would be in the badlands. Having his friend along made all the difference in the world however. Vor knew that the Human, tough as he was, would eventually succumb to his races biology and die of heat stroke or worse if he were not supplied properly. Jaero again seemed to be following Vors private train of thought. "I have a moisture suit with me, I did come prepaired at least, which will help me in the desert, but I will need a supply of water and food that will last until I can set up a small collector when we camp and do some hunting." Jaero seemed to have no false illusions about his own ability to survive where Vor was heading without water. This was good thought Vor.

They located a water dealer fairly easily. There were any number of them here each proclaiming the purity or the refreshing qualities of thier water as opposed to what the other vendors were selling. Vor picked one at random that seemed a little less dirty that the others and entered. To his surprise, the being behind the counter was a doshan. Vor was making a hasty judgement as to if he should retreat to another water dealer when the doshan turned and saw him. "Ahhhh welcome. Welcome good travelers to Nagla's. You are quite astute to have chosen my establishment over the other rabble hereabouts to be sure." said the doshan in rapid fire standard.

Vor carefully signaled Jaero to be silent and stared at the merchant as if understanding not a thing he had just said. "My companion, the human, needs a supply of water." said Vor in Doshan. The vendor looked carefully at Jaero who was standing behind Vor and said, "Are you sure you want to buy water to keep 'it' alive egg brother? The cost could be quite prohibitive. Humans need lots of water and the cost in any hotel will put you into debt and have you owned by the management before you can say Jabba." Vor did not fall for the false friendliness of the merchant. "We will not be staying in a hotel. I am a creature handler and am making a trip to the far side of Mos Espa in search of Bantha."

The merchant looked suprised and continued, "Better to kill it now then. Your 'companion' will not survive the trip outside this city in the current heat, much less a trip of that length. I'll tell you what I'll do. Only because you are a brother doshan of course you understand. Sell it to me and I will give you water rations for 2 weeks and a chit good for 50 credits at an associates outfitter shop." Vor showed all of his meat teeth. This sign of anger caught the merchant off guard. He backed hastily away from the counter saying, "Easy there egg brother. Only an offer between friends, no need to get upset. It's none of my business if you want to take a human out to Jabba's and back."

Vor turned and let Jaero know it was safe to get what he needed now. Jaero approached the counter wondering what that whole process had been about. "My good man, I will need five one liter bottles of distilled water if you please." The reaction he received from the merchant was exactly as he expected it to be. "Five one liter bottles?!" the merchant said in a loud voice until he noticed Vor again still showing all his meat teeth. "Oh course good sir. One moment while I get it for you from the back."

After Jaero had changed into his moisture suit and replaced his body armor over the form fitting suit, he mentioned to Vor that if they were going to be disappearing into thin air, they should at least put in an appearance at the safe house. Vor agreed that this was prudent so that the Avians knew that thier man Jaero had made it to Tatooine in one piece. This agreed, Jaero lead him to what appeared to be from the outside a largish eating establishment and entered. One of the things that Vor found just a little unsettling was the large number of swoop bikes parked in front of the building. All of which had the symbol of a winged human on them in various places depending on the type of bike.

Jaero approached the counter waving and saying in a lod voice, "Stormy. I sure hope you have some of that Mon Calamari sweet water in stock because I have a powerful thirst my friend." Vor followed Jaero's example and seated himself at the bar. A Twi'lik of average build approached, somehow managing to smile and frown at Jaero at the same time. "Well well well, and what took the two of you so long to get here? Your transport landed quite a while ago. I was about to see if a few Angels would mind making a sweep of the streets to see if they could locate you." Jaero laughed and said, "Sorry Stormy. Business. Couldn't be avoided and the last thing Vor and I need right now is to have attention drawn to our being here by a group of Avian Angels screaming through the streets looking for us."

The twi'lik spoke in a whisper to Jaero indicating a curtained door to the left of thier seat at the bar. Jaero picked up his gear, indicated that Vor should follow and went through the curtain. Vor made his way to the only occupied table in this area and sat down next to Jaero. The occupants of the table, Vor noted, were a hodge podge of races and professions, from what he saw of them.

There was a Bothan to Jaeros left who looked as if he had just taken a shower in a sandstorm. Next to the Bothan were two Mon Calamari and two Humans. The Mon Cals were very different from each other. The first wore what was plainly fairly expensive clothing and wore an emblem of some sort around his neck. The other seemed to be somewhat preoccupied with some thought or other and did not really seem to see or hear what was happening at the table. The Humans were also very different from each other, even to Vor who could hardly tell one from the other.

One of the humans was entirely encased in form fitting armor of a type that Vor had never seen before and whos function he could only vaguely guess. The other was a giant of a man. The man must have weighed nearly as much as a wookie from the look of him and he had a singularly greasy appearance. His single attempt to look acceptable seemed to be wearing a very well fitted suit of some sort of cloth. Jaero nodded at the entire table and began introducing the others to Vor.

The bothan he introduced as Raqlin Dredd, scavanger extrordinaire and a fellow member of Avian Technology and Trade. All the beings at the table were members it seems. The Mon Cal with the expensive taste in clothing was called Onto Kracken and was treated with some respect by the others at the table. Vor assumed he must hold a position of power within the group. The other Mon Cal was introduced as Rak Hagga. Vor noticed that the Rak did not look up when introduced. Vor thought that he must be in deep thought on some very important matter.

The humans were introduced as Aeric vo-Telon, and simply, Bossman. Aeric was the armor wearer while Bossman was the largish human. Bossman hardly looked up from his data pad when introduced but Aeric thrust his hand out in the typical human greeting. "Nice to meet you Vor." Said the human. Just then the curtain parted and the twi'lik Jaero had spoken to approached the table. "And this, Vor, is our most gracious host Latru' alin. Better known to his fellow Avians as Stormrider. Not only can he get pretty much anything you need, he cooks a mean spicy fish plate." The twi'lik made an exagerated bow never losing a drop from the drinks he carried on his tray.

The twi'lik placed the drinks and stopped next to Rak Hagga. "Well Rak, the spicy fish or the blue weed salad?" The Mon Cal looked at Latru with a pained expression. "Ah..yes. Choices choices. Well. There is nothing for it I think. As I cannot decide you will simply have to bring me both." This said, Rak seemed to lose a great weight from his mind and for the first time noticed Vor and Jaero at the table. The twi'lik looked across the table at Vor. "I know that Jaero there will be drinking his meal in sweet water so that leaves you. What can I get for you? We don't have a menu but if you are willing to wait to eat a short time I can get pretty much anything you like."

Vor thought about this and looked to Jaero. His friend nodded so Vor said, "Having being sabrecat leg?" Latru-Stormrider seemed somewhat taken aback by this. "The entire leg? I have steaks, but they are precooked will that do?" Seeing the distastful look on Vor's face he went on, "Let me guess, raw." At this Vor's tongue flicked over his lips involuntarity as he nodded. "As you wish. One haunch of sabrecat, still warm from the carcas coming up. You will of course have to wait some short time while I locate your order." He made is way back out through the curtain shaking his head and mumbling.
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There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 13
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:31 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
When he looked back at the table, Vor noticed that the human Aeric seemed to be looking him over as if appraising him for something. When the human saw that he had been caught in the act, he said, "Sorry Vor. Didn't mean to stare like that, I was wondering if you might be interested in doing me a favor?"

Vor looked blankly at the human and said nothing. Aeric continued after a moment. "You see, my company was contracted to make a suit of armor for a trandoshan client. Unfortunately he was killed on a wookie hunting expedition and never returned to claim the armor. Now normally I would not let a prototype of this cost leave the labs without at least a deposit but here is what I have in mind. You wear the armor and give me an evaluation when you return it. If you like it after that time I will let you have the armor at a very low cost. If not I will say thank you and leave it at that. What do you say?"

Jaero set down his drink and said excitedly to the human, "Hey what about your old friend Jaero?" Aeric rolled his eyes and said, "Jaero, the last time I let you test some armor, you ended up destroying a fifty thousand credit prototype! Why would I want to trust you with this one?" Contrary to the statement, the human did not seem angry with the other human. Jaero wearing a look of shock said, "Now Aeric, you know very well that was not my fault! A real designer would have made allowances for my moisture suit." He somehow managed a look of hurt indignance. "You great pain in the butt!" said Aeric. "I did make allowances. No designer can account for the damage a vibroblade will make in that mobile lake you call a moisture suit." He laughed and waved dismissively at Jaero who went back to his drink with a grin.

The twi'lik Latru returned and spoke to Jaero. "I take it from your current gear that you won't be staying. Will you need me to arrange transport for you?" Jaero nodded and said, "Yes, Vor and I will be in the wilderness for some time and will need a speeder if you can locate one. Or you could be a real friend and see if a pair of swoop bikes can be had." He smiled hugely at Latru. The twi'lik put his hands on his hips, tilted his head to one side and said to Jaero, "Do you have any idea what Ayn would do to me if I told her I needed another swoop bike for you?" Before Jaero could respond he went on, "No you don't! And neither do I, but I can tell you it wouldn't be pleasent after what you did to the last one she loaned to you." Jaero again looking pained said "Now, THAT, was most definately not my fault!" Before he can say more, the entire room seems to erupt with laughter.

Still smiling from Jaero's statement Latru goes on, "Listen Jaero. I just happen to have a speeder I bought a while ago from some farmers kid. Not the best, but it runs and looks like it is in good repair. But! The way you treat equipment, your gonna have to shell out the credits for this one." Jaero seemed about to protest. Vor stopped him with a claw and turned to Latru. "You having sell for item not credits being?" he asked. Latru looked confused and said, "Sorry Vor I don't speak Trandoshan. Wanna try that again in standard?" Vor had no idea what to do. He had never failed to get his meaning across before. Granted his standard was not the best but. His thought is interrupted by Jaero. "He want's to know if you will trade for it. We didn't come with the intention of emptying out accounts for a broken down speeder."

This time it was Latru who looked hurt. "It will get you where you want to go. Ok Vor, you have my interest. What you have to trade?" Vor reaches into his tunic and produces a small packet of a redish yellow powder and shows it to the human. The twi'liks eyes open all the way as he looks at the packet. "Is that? No!!!" He grabs the packet and looks at it very carefully. He starts to open the packet, then stops and looks at Vor who nods. Latru dips his finger into the packet getting one or two grains of the powder on it and putting the finger to his mouth. A Look of complete suprise mixed with pleasure comes over the twi'lik.

"Vor my friend, I don't know where you got this, but if you wish to trade a small quantity, you and Jaero can take the speeder and whatever other items you might need." He looks excitedly at Vor. Vor knowing the value of the packet nods his accent. Everyone at the table seems suprised at Latrus reaction to the smallish packet of powder. Jaero is the first to inquire. "Vor, what exactly is that powder? It isn't Spice. I have seen that before and Latru would never take Spice from someone he did not know as payment for anything." Latru, returning answered the question. "This my old friend is one of the rarest spices in the galaxy. It is called Aurean Fire Vine spice. The Aurean fire vine only grew on one planet. Alderaan."

Having eaten and made thier way to Aerics shop to pick up Vors new armor, they were now speading along towards the badlands of Tatooine. Vor was just beginning to get comfortable when he spotted something that made him signal Jaero to stop the speeder. Looking the faint track he had seen, Vor was sure now. Bantha's and by the look of the tracks wild as well. After Vor pointed out the tracks to his friend, Jaero seemed to have no problem following them even at full throttle in the speeder. When the tracks looked as if they were fairly fresh, Vor was about to signal Jaero again to stop, but the human had again preempted his thought and was already slowing the speeder.

Vor was trying to get used to the feel of the new armor. He had considered leaving it packed for later use, but he had given his word that he would test it and what better test than while attmepting to capture a few banthas for taming. He felt awkward in it but did notice that it was very light and seemed to fit him perfectly. Readjusting the breastplate, he noticed a small symbol just inside the lip of the armor. He motioned Jaero over and showed it to him.

"Yeah it's the symbol for Aerics company Emissive Technologies." Jaero shows Vor the same marking inside the chestplate of his armor. "They put that into everything they make and if I know Aeric, that armor will be something special." Jaero had been busy setting up a shade and getting a temporary camp set up. "They are the ones that made my moisture suit. That is pretty much the reason Aeric gets away with the names he calls it." Vor shrugged and made it known that he would return as soon as he had found the resting spot the banthas had chosen for the night. A final check that he had all the equipment on his person that he would need and he headed over the nearest dune in the direction the tracks led.

He had spotted the resting place some time ago. It was a gully of exposed rock between several larger than normal sand dunes. He had seen no sign of the banthas as yet, but he knew they would be there sheltered against any possible storms and large predators. Vor had been about to look over the edge of the rock outcropping when the piece he held broke loose and he tumbled uncontrolably down.

He came to a jolting stop at the bottom of a small valley made in the rock by the desert wind. He fully expected to be trampled at any second by the scared banthas. When he heard a loud snuffling hiss instead of the rumble of bantha hooves, he cracked an eye open far enough to see the small Krayt Dragon searching for the source of the sound that had startled it from it's sleep. Vor was in the downwind part of the valley from the huge reptile which is the only reason he still lived. He could see the krayt tasting the air with it's tongue and peering towards his position.

With the practiced moves of a creature handler, Vor retrieved two things from his belt. The first was a small gel packet which he punctured with a claw and spread over his head and upper body as completely as he could without moving too much. The second was a vocalizer. This he made quick setting changes to and placed into his mouth. Vor slowly moved his head to see what his situation was. Although he had fallen in the downwind area, therefore saving his life from immediate peril, he saw that the only exit from the rock enclosure was past the dragon. He saw the carcas' of the banthas he had been tracking in various stages of being consumed by the krayt.

The bantha's small mind probably had not thought about the fact that while a full grown krayt could not get at them here, this young one was just small enough to enter the area. Young the dragon might be but still large enough to slaughter an entire herd of banthas without much trouble. Vor knew that he would be no more than a momentary nuisance to the huge reptile. "Well, nothing to do but try." He thought as he started to rise. Making sure that every move was slow and even so as not to express fear he moved towards the dragon.

A slight change in the wind brought his taste to the krayt. It lowered it's head, tasted the air several times in quick succession and moved slowly towards Vor. Using the vocalizer, vor emitted a noise that was far to loud for his own vocal chords. The Krayt stopped and hissed as if somewhat confused. It recognized the sound and the scent-taste, but was unsure due to Vor's size. As he crept closer to the giant beast, Vor pulled a small flat device from his belt and settled it into his right palm. He would not use the device unless there were no other way, but he would be ready none-the-less.

He was just infront of and below the huge head when he stopped moving. The dragon lowered it's head and sniffed him. The exhaled blast would have blown Vor all the way across the canyon by sheer force of volume had he not been braced. The huge tongue snapped whip hard and fast against his face and body tasting him. Just as it seemed the krayt may accept him as a natural part of the landscape, Vor heard the rattle of pebbles falling where he had entered the area.He knew that Jaero had come looking for him. He had been forced to move slowly and now his time was gone. The dragons head began to snap up and investigate the sound. Vor knew that he and Jaero would stand no chance against the Krayt now. Exerting all his strength, he leaps up and catchs the dragons ear and pulls himself to a position astride the dragons head.

The Krayt stands absolutely still for a second then goes into a spasm of activity trying to dislodge Vor from it's head. Vor is forced to hold on for his life as the dragon shakes and jerks it's head back and forth. He has no time to set the device in his hand, only time to prevent a terrible death should he let go and lose his perch. He does manage to notice that Jaero has leapt down into the canyon and is crouched down blaster in hand trying to get a shot that will not hit his friend. The dragon for just a moment seems to forget about Vor and notices Jaero in the canyon ahead. It raises it's head and roars. The sound echoes off the close walls of the canyon as it charges at the helpless human.

Vor grabs the dragons ear and using the other hand slaps the electronic device into place at the back of the dragons skull. He hits the activation button and leaps off to the left trying to get some distance. The device blazes into activity and the krayts entire head is engulfed by electrical fury. Jaero can not make out the dragons head inside the web of electricity but he feels a deep inner calm as the great beast continues it's charge at him. He closes his eyes in anticipation of his demise, but is thrown off his feet by the dragons weight booming into the ground not more that a meter from where he stood.

Jaero gets up and looking at the krayt sees that there are some few stray bits of electricty sparking here and there over it's head but it is most defiantely dead. He quickly makes his way past to see if he can find Vor. He finds his friend some five meters back convulsing uncontrolably. He knows without thinking that stray power leaked from the dragons head and blasted his friend. Vor stops shaking and lets out a long hissss, and then....nothing.

The seconds seemed to take an eternity each to pass as Jaero searched the armor Aeric had made for Vor to find the switch that he knew had to be present. With a strength he did not know he had, he flipped the heavy Trandoshan over onto his chest and began probing the back of the armor for the switch. He finally managed to locate it in the back of the left armpit and stepped back as he activated it. Vor's body jumped as if there were still power from the device used on the dragon flowing through him. Once, twice, three times his body convulsed before he took a deep breath. Jaero sighing heavily, found that he no longer had the earlier strength and was forced to lever his friend over onto his back.

Vor woke to the sound of a fire and a darkened sky. His entire body ached. Each movement brought new and painful cramps in every muscle he used. He heard movement to his left and turned his head enough to see that it was his friend Jaero feeding scrub brush into a small but warm fire. "Ahh awake at last I see, good. I thought I was going to have to expend some of my water to splash in your face, hahahaha." Vor noticed that his friends laugh seemed forced and not quite genuine.

Jaero helped him into a sitting position that was for Vor, pure agony, until his muscles stopped spasming. Jaero seemed to notice the look of pain in Vors face and said, " Be glad you can feel anything my friend. If it were not for that armor Aeric made, you would be feeding the sand spiders by now." Vor was puzzled bu his friends statement. "Vor being remember only jumping being head of dragon from." Jaero nodded and proceeded to tell the entire story. "I got us as far away from the Krayt as I could before the suns went down. The last thing we needed was to have an adult dragon show up from the smell of the dead youngster while were were still there."

Checking himself over, Vor found that he had several large yellowish bruises where the feedback from the synaptic destroyer had contacted his armor. Luckily the armor seemed to have taken the brunt of the assault and the insulation had prevented burns. Looking the armor over, Vor noticed that there were four or five small smudges which wiped away easily. Other that this, there was no evidence that anything had happened to the armor. "I told you that armor would be something special" said jaero sitting down next to Vor and handing him a liter bottle of water.

The friends sat in silence for quite some while. Vor finishing the water, attempted to stand and fell to the sand as his legs became one solid cramp from hip to toe claws. Jaero, knowing that the movement would help get rid of the cramping, helped Vor to his feet and supported him for a few moments as they moved about the camp. After a short time Vor stood away from the human and moved slowly into the warming up exercises used before training in the Teras Kasi techniques.

Jaero eyed the trandoshan for a moment, then went back to sit byt the fire saying, "Better now?" When Vor did not answer he went on, "Good! Because you weight as much as a Mon Cal freighter." Getting no response from Vor, he began removing his armor and cleaning it piece by piece. Vor observed his friend as he worked slowly through the first four of the ten beginning defensive forms. He wondered on nearly a minute by minute basis what it was that drew the human to follow him into danger. he could not really understand Jaeros emotions. The human had seemed relieved when Vor had awakened. He had noted on other occasions that his friend seemed to show, what a doshan would have considered, an inordinant amout of concern. "Humans! Ha" thought Vor as he flowed into the next of the forms.

Vor had slept fitfully and woke up to the battering heat of another morning in the wastelands. Even here beneath the shade that Jaero had erected the heat was already oppresive. Moving around to test his level of mobility, Vor found that the stiffness of the previous night was entirely gone. Looking around he saw no sign of Jaero. Suddenly alert incase there were danger, Vor got up and began to look for signs of where the human had gone. There were no signs of a struggle and the footprints he saw heading into the East were indeed those of his friend. Thinking about the strange way that humans seemed to act in regards to thier elimination process, we was not worried about Jaeros whereabouts.

After a short time, Vor found that he was being watched. There was a small sand spider some two meters away on the dune observing him. It's one large multifaceted eye glittering in the harsh light of the two suns. The spider was approximately the size of a humans outstretched hand and was not venomous. At least not to a being Vor's size. Smaller creatures though, would be wise to beware this predator of the wastelands. As was always the case when he saw this creature, Vor was awed by the stark effeciency of the spider. It's four multi jointed legs made it sway constantly back and forth to cause a cooling airflow over it's mottled grey carapace. The unblinking eye never moving from it's object of interest.

Vor shoed the spider away with a handfull of sand pitched in its direction. He had always seemed to have a fascination with the predators on the many planets he had been to. The large and the small, he had studied them all and had sought to emulate them in many ways. He had even got so far as to have certain modifications dne to his anatomy that made him a more efficient predator. In what any other doshan would consider a total abuse of thier body, Vor had gotten two of his meat teeth replaced. The contents of the synthetic teeth were a last resort granted, but there all the same should he need it.

Movement caught his eye and he saw Jaero just starting to crest a dune some distance to the East. His friend waved to him in an easy manner. Vor not quite sure if this was a greeting like the touching of hands, emulated the motion. As he watched, Jaero seemed to peer hard to the West past the camp and excelerated to a run while pointing to the West and yelling something Vor could not make out.

Turning to see what had caught his friends attention, he saw a cloud of dust approaching very rapidly from the West. Getting to his feet, he saw that the dust cloud was caused by what appeared to be a group of four or five speeders heading in his direction. The speeders seemed to be of various models but had one thing in common, they were all in a poor state of repair. Vor noted as the speeders got closer that they also all had the same emblem enblazoned on thier sides. It was a human hand from just below the elbow, fingers facing outwards, clenched in a fist.

Jaero came stumbling into the camp breathing hard and coughing from the effor of the run. He was bent nearly double trying to catch his breath. Coughing and sputtering he kept pointing at the incoming speeders. Vor knew that he would not be able to understand his friend until he could breath again, so his attention went back to the speeders. It was quite obvious that the drivers of the speeders had sighted the camp as they made a small adjustment in course and turned directly towards the small camp. Jaero grasped Vors right arm, took a deep breath and shouted as if trying to make himself heard in a storm, "Wasteland pirates!!"
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There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 14
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:38 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:04 pm
Posts: 360
Location: Southern Ca
The sand directly infront of Vor erupted into a huge cloud. He was already on the ground, blaster out when the sound from the heavy blaster shot reached him. Jaero was already sending well placed shots into the group of speeders. Vor fired and saw his shot glance off the side of a speeder. The incoming blaster fire was so thick that it sounded almost like a swarm of huge insects as it raised small puff of sand here and there about the two friends.

Jaero was by far the better marksman of the two. By the time the speeders had covered half the distance to the pair, he had already eliminated four of the pirates. Vor had been lucky to take the one he had hit. The speed of the vehicles and the quick movements removed any advantage he had from being stationary and braced. The toll on the attackers was raised by another two before they changed course and shot behind a dune a short distance from Vor and Jaero's camp.

Jaero was moving from Vors right side to the left so he had a clear shot at the dune when the blaster shot hit him in the chest. The hit threw him backwards and he hit the ground heavily. Vor did not have time to move and see to him as he saw the first pirates head come over the far dune. Before he could take a shot, a bolt of energy passed close by his head and blew the pirates face into a chared mess as he fell from sight. Vor turned to see Jaero crawling up next to him on the left. Vor hoped that it was not blood that was leaving the damp trail where the human had crawled.

Now and then a pirate would rise up and fire at them to quickly duck behind the protective sand. Jaero and Vor had the better position being higher up than the pirates, but even so, they killed no more of the enemy. A voice came across the sand. "Oyyyy. Halloooooo the camp." Jaero rose just slightly and called back, "What do you want?" never taking his aim off the area where the pirates were sheltered. A head partially showed above the sand and Jaero parted the hair with his shot.

"Now is that any way to treat the man who holds your life in his hands?" came the pained voice. Jaero laughed and called back, "Show me just a little more and we will see who holds whos life!" As if in que, all the remaining pirates raised up and rapid fire energy came at the friends making them pull thier heads back from the edge of the dune they occupied. Jaero put his blaster over the edge and fired blindly over the top. He was rewarded by a yelp of pain from the other dune.

Vor had noticed that the incoming fire had not been half as intense as it had been previously and assumed that his friend must have accounted for more of the enemy than he had at first thought. During this calm, Vor pointed to the rapidly widening damp spot on the sand under the human. Jaero shoved his hand between the sand and his armor and probed for a moment. He pulled his hand back with a chuckle. "Punctured my moisture suit. " He chuckled again, "I can hear Aeric now, ' "Another suit up in smoke! What do you do, take them out and shoot at them for the fun of it?" '. And of course no amount of explanation will make him believe it was not my fault."

Again the others rose up and sent a deluge of energy at Vor and Jaero. The human rolled slightly on his side and was putting a fresh charge into his blaster when his head snapped to the East. He had time to say "Vor! Behind us." Before the stun blast took him dead center. Vor flipped and fired hitting nothing. The stun blast hit him in the arm as he dodged away from his stunned friend. Vor fired again at the group he could now see coming in from the East side of the camp and missed. The next stun blast pounded him down into the sand and into unconsciousness.

He was tied well enough to prevent his efforts to break the bonds. Vor had been awake now for quite some while. He had feigned still being stunned to gather what information his ears would bring him. He had learned very little. There was much moving about, but not much talk and that there was Vor could not understand. Finally he heard something he did understand, a voice off to his left said, "Jal, got stick a blade in the lizard and see if he is ready to wake up yet." The sound of approaching footsteps and another sound like a vibroblade powering up.

Vor opened his eyes and lunged forward hissing loudly. The human that had been about to stab him, jumped backwards, lost his balance and fell over another human. The camp erupted in laughter. The two humans remained tangled for a moment before the second human got to his feet aiming a kick at the blade holder. "Oof! Snot my fault Hryl! Yoo sawr it. He uz gonnto bite me ee was!" said the human with the vibro blade rubbing his injured shoulder.

Vor noted that the humans were all very poorly dressed in what looked to be badly cured animal skins and scraps of cloth and pieces of armor. They were as a group unwashed and to Vors' sensitive nostrils, grossly in need of an odor remover. Vor leaned forward again and, showing all his teeth, hissed loudly again at the blade holder. The pleasure that Vor got from seeing the human, who had been called Jal, cringe back in fear was cut short as a heavy blow smashed his head far to the left.

Lip bleeding, Vor slowly turned his head back, hissing in anger to see the huge shaggy form that had hit him. The wookie growled deeply as it raised it's fist for a second blow. "Enough! Yoonar, I need him alive!" Came the voice of a human just exiting one of the shabby huts that made up the camp. The wookie looked back at the human for a moment, and then howling in rage swept its arm down to complete the strike. The blow never fell. The wookie was backing slowly away from Vor screaming in pain and clutching at its throat.

The human had a control device in its hand. As it released a button, the wookie let go its throat and advanced on him. "Don't make me use it again Yoonar!" The wookie howled again but stopped where it was. Vor saw that it wore an obedience collar. The human looked at Vor and said "I hated having to do that. he does after all deserve to be allowed to kill you. Your friend there killed his mate." Putting the control device on his belt, the human turned his back to the wookie and approached Vor.

At the mention of his friend, Vor looked over to the right and saw Jaero bound as he was to a pair of posts driven into the sand. His friend did not look good at all. He was heavily bruised and his lips were cracked and bleeding. Vor hoped that he was feigning unconsciousness and formulating a plan, because the appearance of the wookie had dashed any hope that Vor entertained of intimidating the humans into releasing them.


The day passed slowly. Even Vor felt himself to be somewhat the worse for wear from the direct sunlight of the twin suns beating down on him. Jaero was either unconscious, dead or still pretending. Vor hoped very much that is was the last option, as he had come to feel more and more attached to the human that had tried to shield him from danger. As evening approached, the leader of the wasteland pirates approached, picking his teeth as he came.

"So, how are you finding our little camp eh?" said the man. Vor getting a better look at the human saw immediately why it was that he let the wookie do all his fighting for him. The man was nearly crippled in his left leg. While this injury was not obvious from a distance, it would make it impossible for the man to win a fight against any but the most amature of fighters.

Vor summoned up what strength he had and hissed his anger at the man. "HA! Hahahahahaha" he said as he approached even closer to the bound doshan. "Don't try that big bad lizard routine on me! Tomorrow I turn you over to someone who wants to see you very much. Enough in fact to almost make me not be angry at the price it cost me in men to capture you."

He picked a bit of meat from between two teeth. "As I said, Almost. But before I turn you over, I think I will have to see how much pain your friend here can stand. Normally I would give such a good shooter the choice of joining us or dying. Unfortunately, he killed my tame wookies mate. That in itself wrote his dead sentence."

The human turned and shouted, "Zander! Get your lazy butt over here, NOW!" A wirey looking human approached and said, "Yes boss?" The leader pointed over his shoulder at the captives. "Get them half a liter of water to share between them. We don't want them to die now do we? Especially since the reptile is worth such a bounty to us." He walked away laughing to himself.

The human called Zander left promptly and returned a short time later with water as ordered. After the human was sure that there was noone else within earshot, he spoke in a low voice while helping Vor drink. "Listen, if I help you escape will you take me with you?" Vor tried his best not to show his suprise at the statement and made the nod of his head seem like part of his drinking.

"Thank you." said Zander, and began to speak in rapid low tones as he continued to give Vor water. "I am not sure when or what I can do, but you must be prepaired for anything. I am not sure your friend there can be saved. Looks to me as if he has taken his last step, so you may want to be ready to leave him if we must."

Vor was just about to signal in the negative, when to his very great relief, Jaero spoke in a croaking voice. "I am not dead yet Zander. But I soon will be if I don't get that water that your boss promised." Vor was very happy to hear Jaero's voice and motioned Zander to give the rest of the water to his friend.

Jaero took only small cautious sips of the water at first. Vor was not sure why this was. Jaero, as always, seemed to hear him thinking and said, "Humans cannot suck great mouthfulls of water after a long dry spell Vor. We become ill if we do." This said he turned his attention back to the water and began to drink larger and larger sips.

After drinking what seemed to be much less than half of the water, Jaero looked closely at the other human and said, "So, Zander. What exactly is your story? Why the urgent desire to join us and face the wrath of your leader?" Zander went back to Vor and as he began to give the doshan more water told his tale in the same low tones.

I am a street fighter. Where the money fights are, that is where I can be found. I had had a run in with a small group of these pirates in a town. They had offered a few credits if I could beat thier leader. I won. He didn't think it was a fair fight and refused to pay me, so I took my payment from his and his friends skins." he said.

"I was just looking for a good cash bout when I was approached by some locals who had seen me taking my pay from the pirates. 'Zander' they said, 'We are told there is a grand melee event scheduled for later this day in the wastelands.' 'The wastelands?' says I 'Yes, the fight coordinator doesn't want any bleeding heart protestors or militia/Imperial involvement.' says they."

"So, being as I fight where the money is I followed thier map to a small shabby looking arena set up just a few Km's from here. I approached the head man and told him I was there to fight. He looks at me, laughs a little and says 'Hey Brak! Take a look at this one! Hahahahaha. Looks like the walk here nearly killed him! Hahahahaha.' as you may have noticed he thinks a great many things funny."

"He introduced himself as Slantro the head man of the travelling group and said he would let me show what I could do in the arena, gave me a number and asked if I wanted a weapons or a melee match. I shrugged and he made a mark in the book infront of him. I was directed to a waiting area to sti till they called me."

He looks up at Vor. "Have you noticed how ver hot it is out here? I nearly perished of thirst waiting for my match. I was finally called and found myself facing a somewhat slimy looking rodian. He wasn't quite as skilled as he seemed. After a knee to the guts and an elbow to the back the fight was over."

Zander began to speak very rapidly as the water diminished. "So, Slantro calls me aside when I exit the fighting area and says to me, 'Well well, how would you like a chance at a triple purse today Zander?' I look at him as if he is crazy and say, 'Who do I have to kill?' He laughs again, he always seems to be laughing, and says 'Why my champion of course!' and getting an affirmative reply from me, walks away, again laughing."

The water nearly gone now he hurrys on. "So I warm up a little, enter the ring when called and find that Yoonar fellow waiting for me. Now I am a good fighter, but only a trandoshan or another wookie is a match for a wookie." Zander smiles. "I put up a good fight. managed to damage the wookie pretty good too before it was all over."

"So badly in fact that when I wake up, Slantro tells me his group is actually a band of wasteland pirates, and that they just recently got a contract to capture a trandoshan. He says the fights were set up to get new members and that I have the choice of joining or being killed then and there. You can guess what I chose."

"Listen, I have to go back now. If I stay, someone will become suspicious. I only joined them to stay alive and plan on how to get away from here. Hopefully with a little payback as they never did pay me for the fights. I will answer one question before I head back."

Vor, caught off guard by the sudden change from narrative to answer giving, has to think for a moment. Jaero asks the question they both want to know. "Zander, do you know who paid Slantro to capture us?" Zander thinks for moment then says, "Yeah but all he said was a name. It was something like Venta I believe."

The night was cold as is the norm in a desert climate. Luckily the bandits had apparently seen no reason to strip the prisoners and thier clothes and armor afforded some protection from the nights chill. Vor wished desperately to talk with his friend and plan thier escape, but Slantro had set a guard to watch them for the night and Vor was sure any conversation would be overheard.

The guard had been changed at regular intervals during the night. This and the fact that the guards were extrordinarily vigilant had frustrated any attempt Vor had wanted to make at working on an escape plan with Jaero. Vor had hoped that the human Zander would have been placed as a guard, but this had not been the case. Obviously Zander was being extra cautious so as not to show his hand too soon.

Dawn came pale and grey with the first sun rise, then harsh and bright with the second. Vor noticed activity begin in the small camp as the slugish pirates began to make thier morning meal and prepair for the day. Feeling watched, Vor looked towards the only permenant structure in the camp, a small rock house, and saw the wookie Yoonar watching him intently. Vor strained forward and hissed a challenge at the wookie. Yoonar threw his massive arms into the air, voiced a loud roar and started towards the prisoners at a fast pace.

Before the wookie could reach the halfway point between the stone house and the prisoners, the voice of Slantro boomed out of the house entrance. "Don't make me hurt you again Yoonar! I need the lizard alive!" The wookie stopped and looking directly at Vor, showed all his teeth and rumbled a deep growl that promised death at some future time. Having made his point, Yoonar shambled back towards the stone building, looking over his shoulder every so often at the hated enemy.

I will have to deal with the wookie quickly if our chance to escape comes, thought Vor. With a laugh Slantro made his way over to the prisoners position. "Ahhhh. Another wonderful day. Pay day I might add. Always a good day when I get to kill someone who has angered me and make a tidy profit as well." He smiled up at Vor. "So my large ugly friend. Are you not curious why we bothered to take you prisoner? Hmmm?" he said as he circled slowly around the bound trandoshan.

"At first my men were just looking to relieve you of the dragon gems that you must have taken from the young krayt that you killed. That was quite some work by the way, they tell me there were no wounds on him. But then my men saw your speeder as well. We can always use a spare speeder, so the man I had put in charge decided to kill you both and take anything worth taking." For the first time Vor saw the human frown before he continued.

"But then my men called me from hiding and informed me how many men you and your friend had killed. It was then that I decided that we must get some small recompence for the loss of so many good fighters from your hides. And so here we are, the day of payment." Slantro inhales deeply and pounds his hands on his chest as he blows the breath out. " A wonderful day for an execution." The human walks away, with his characteristic laugh following in his wake.

A short time later Zander approaches Vor with what looks to be a standard trandoshan military protein bar and a second item that Vor does not recognize. "I am sorry, but I can't release your hands to let you eat." He says as he guides the bar towards Vors mouth. As he chews the tastless food, he looks down at Zander and sees him motion silence. It isn't till this time that he notices the pair of guards that are feeding his friend.

Jaero seems totally unable to fend for himself. Vor is not absolutely certain that this is not an act on his friends part, he has been through almost more than Vor himself has been able to take and still be alive. As he watchs, the guards, thinking that the man must be near death and fearing the wrath of thier leader should he in fact die now, begin to untie him. Vor watchs as his friend, unbound, slumps lifelessly to the ground. The guards help Jaero upright and after make sure he is alive, drag him to a position directly in front of Vor.

Here finally Vor finds the use of the double metal stakes in the ground with a leather strap between them. The guards position Jaero between the stakes, which reach just to the bottom of the humans rib cage on either side, and using the leather strap, bind him about the waist in a standing position. It is now obvious that they intend to torture Jaero and force Vor to watch. Having finished the food bar, he nods to Zander in way of thanks and watchs as the human walks towards his friend.

Zander and Jaero seem to exchange some few words and then Zander moves off towards the middle of the camp, but Vor notices that he is no longer carrying the second item that he had been holding when he arrived. Jaero looks up slightly and grins at his friend. Vor can see that Jaero, no longer bound with hands far apart, is busy working at a piece of his armor. Vor looks at his friend with a puzzled expression but Jaero is intent on his work and refuses to look at his friend again. What can he be doing, thinks Vor. He hoped that whatever it was could be done quickly, because as he looked up, Vor saw the entire camp approaching them with Slantro and Yoonar in the lead. Thier time was up.
Vor watched helplessly as the large group of beings approached. Jaero, working frantically on some exposed wires in the wrist of his armor, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then went back to what he was doing in less hurried manner. Looking around, Vor spotted Zander towards the back of the group. It looked as if he had a small bundle of some sort but Vor could not be sure as the twin suns glared down into his eyes.

Several of the pirates placed a large, throne, for lack of a better word, on the small rise to Vors left. Slantro made his way, grinning as usual, to the throne and seated himself. The group of beings seemed quite excited about the prospect of seeing someone tortured and were quite loud. Vor noticed that the wookie Yoonar stood to the right of the throne holding a large blaster that looked as if it had seen better times. Slantro stood, raised his blaster and fired it into the air. The group was instantly silent awaiting the words of thier leader.

"Today," he began, "we are going to finally get payback in more ways than one. Firstly, the lizard there is going to net us nearly fifty thousand credits." There is a surge of low toned speach from the crowd. "I will personally see that each and every one of you gets your fair share of this money." After you skim a large amount off the top, if that is the actual amount you were paid, thought Vor. "Also today we get to pay back the person responsible for the deaths of more than twelve of our brothers and sisters." The crowd reacted to this by throwing refuse and stones at Jaero who had by this time finished whatever he had been doing with his armor.

Looking closely at what Zander was doing in the rear of the crowd, Vor saw him remove two vibroblades.They were not a standard design and Vor assumed they must have been specially made for the human. He also happened to notice that there was the twin of the sand spider he had seen just before he and Jaero had been captured moving slowly from tent to tent in search of prey. Vor lost sight of both the human and the small predator as Slantro continued.

"While we have to wait to get the payment on the reptile, we can take our payment from his friend now, so let the entertainment begin!" Laughing loudly Slantro motions to a rodian who had been setting up a table near Jaero. The rodian carefully selects an instrument from the table and approachs Jaero. Vor notices that Jaero is again feigning unconsciousness. The rodian grabs the hair on the back of Jaeros head and jerks his head up forcefully. Just as he starts to move the instrument in his hand towards Jaeros eyes, the human moves his hand a very short distance and touchs the rodian on the leg.

Both Jaero and the rodian are suddenly transformed into shaking convulsing twins. Vor knows now what his friend was working on in his armor. Jaero had explained that both of thier armors were equiped with a small but very powerful battery system designed to send electrical shocks to the heart in case of near death from heart failure. Jaero had somehow bypassed the safety circuit and was now delivering the entire charge to the rodian. Unfortunately he was also being subjected to the shock via the rodians contact with him.

Vor strained against his bonds, knowing that he had been unsuccessful in previous attempts to break them. Just as he was about to give up, twin vibroblades slammed into the posts, severing the metal bonds and freeing him for action. Vor ran towards the throne. He knew that he must remove Slantro quickly and them face the might of the enraged wookie if he and Jaero were to survive to see another suns rise. As he closed with the two enemys, he saw Zander fly through the air, catching Slantro's throat in the crook of his left elbow as he passed, taking the throne and the bandit leader back and into the dust.

His attention no longer divided, Vor put on a burst of speed and slammed into the wookie. Yoonar seemed to not even notice the blow as Vor hit him full speed. Howling a battle call, the wookie slammed his fists down again and again on the hated enemy. Vors armor was, amazingly, taking most of the force of the blows away leaving Vor free to strike back. The two remained locked together trading blow for blow. Yoonar grunted and backed slightly away from a claw strike to the stomache. The wookie looked down in surprise to see blood flowing from the wound.

Vor during this short break had noticed that the crowd was, for the most part, still to stunned by what was happening to organize a response. Vor also wondered why he was hearing a strange roaring sound that seemed to be getting closer and closer. His time to ponder these things was cut short by a hammer blow to the side of his head that sent him reeling back, head spinning. The wookie gave him no time to recover and slammed blow after blow into Vors head driving him inexporably to the ground.

Hooting in triumph, Yoonar sat astride Vor's chest and closing his hands on the doshans throat began to choke the life from him. Vor useed all his strenght to push back that the huge hands of the wookie but could not move them at all. He tried another tactic and began to slash with both hands at the wound he had inflicted earlier. Although the wookie screamed in pain as Vors claws penetrated, first skin, then vital organs, his grip did not waver. In fact it seemed to Vor that it increased as if the wookie knew it had to kill him before it died itself.

The roaring was now the sound of a freighter landing inside Vors head. Vor saw that there was more movement within the camp than could be attributed to just the pirates and he wished he could take the time to see what was going on. Lack of air began to show, as Vors hands stopped thier attack on the wookies bloody abdomen and fell to the sand. As his vison began to blur, and he was proclaiming the deads of his life in his thoughts, Vor felt the weight of the wookie suddenly gone.

Vor took in a ragged breath and immediately tried to get to a defensive posture incase Yoonar renewed his attack. Looking around, he was astonished to see a full scale battle taking place. He saw a few familiar faces flashing by on swoop bikes. The entire camp was under general attack by what seemed a gang of swoop bikers and the bikers were devistating the ill prepaired pirates. Vor finally saw the form of the wookie rising from a position more than four meters away.

As Vor watched, Yoonar drew his blaster and took air at something behind the doshan. Vor turning saw a human female completely dressed in leather riding the largest swoop bike he had ever seen, turning to come at the wookie. Yoonar sent shot after shot from the blaster at the female biker, but as each blast came in the bike seemed almost of it's own accord to move slightly this way or that and either deflect the shot, or hit an area where the damage would be minimal.

It looked to Vor as if the human female was actually making the swoop dance as it roared straight at the constantly firing wookie. At the last moment before contact, Yoonar seemed to think that running may be the better idea and started to turn. At that exact second, the human turned the bike in what seemed an impossible manner to Vor, and hit the wookie in the neck with the steering vane on the left rear of the bike, completely removing Yoonars head from his body.

Vor slumped to the ground and attempted to catch the breath that he suddenly realized he had been holding this whole time. he could see that the bikers were finishing off the last of the resistance from the pirates and would control the field in a matter of moments. With a heavy heart, Vor stood and began to make his way back to where he knew his friend must wait, dead from the shock he had given to both the rodian and himself. As Vor approached, he saw Sarrik, Daishus and several other Avians all standing around the table that had previously been occupied by instruments of torture.

He was able to see one thing before he fell unconscious to the sand. The charred arm of his friend, Jaero, hanging from the side of the table.
Vor awoke to the wind whipping by and the sound of speeders and swoop bikes all around. Sitting up, he found he was in the seat of the speeder that he and Jaero had purchased from Latru. Thinking this brought back the last sight he had seen of his friend. He turned to the driver, Sarrik, and asked, "Jaero, how being is? Burned Vor seeing did yes no? Yes!" Sarrik, not taking his eyes from the instruments said, "He'll be fine. He managed to burn himself pretty badly with that dumb stunt, but a little time in bacta and he will be good as new."

Looking at all the vehicles around them, Vor saw many faces that he recognized as well as many that were completely unknown. Sarrik, noted his interest and said, "It's the Avian Angels. Lots of the Avians are members and we all rallyed to the call when we heard that you and Jaero were in need of a rescue. And those of us that know you two were not even suprised." Sarrik smiled at this thought. Vor noticed that the smile, if anything, made Sarrik look even more dangerous than usual.

Vor was startled to see a hugely fat Mon Calamari sitting on what amounted to a flatbed speeder. The size of the Mon Cal however was not what had caught Vors attention. It was what the giant Mon Cal had in his hands. The large mottled grey sand spider that Vor had seen at both his and Jaeros camp, and at the pirates camp. And as Vor watched, the Mon Cals fingers began to move over the surface of the spider until a small panel popped open. It wasn't a sand spider at all, but a small and exquisitely made spy droid.

As Vor watched the Mon Cal worked on the droid. It's fingers as precise as the best robotic instrument as they probed and cleaned the tiny droid. Vor lost sight of the Mon Cal as a group of some 25 swoop bikes roared past heading towards what looked to Vor to be a small farm in the near distance. As they approached and the Avians began to dismount from thier vehicles, a mid young female twi'lik came from an outbuilding, waving at the Avians. As thier vehicle came to a stop Sarrik looked to Vor and said, "Listen, don't get to comfortable, we won't be here long. And try not to get into any more trouble!"

Seeing that there were some few covered bodies on the flatbed speeder, Vor walked over to see if any of his friends had gone to the great egg. As he approached, he counted five bodies. Uncovering the first, he was surprised to see the corpse of Yoonar the wookie. As he checked, he found that all the others were all dressed in leather, so he knew that they were Avians who had died saving Jaero and himself. Seating himself on the flatbed, Vor shoved the body of the wookie off the truck and began to sing the death transit song for the Avians.

As he was finishing the death singing, the female human that he had seen kill Yoonar came and stood near the side of the flatbed. She stared at Vor for a moment, and for that moment, Vor had the same feeling in his head that drinking too much doshan fire tea always gave him. When the feeling passed, the female was already walking away frowning and shaking her head. Vor wondered what had just happened and who the strange human was.

Sarrik exited the house and came to stand near Vor. He was holding a large mug of something that Vor could only assume was probably near toxic in it's content. Sarrik drank deeply and said, " Four dead and 13 injured including Jaero. The board is not going to be happy about this." Sarrik took another long pull from his drink, and seeing Vors look of confusion continued, "It's like this. After the Board decided that you were just too hot to keep around, some of us got together and paid Grenn our rather large Mon Cal friend there to make us a spy droid that even you and Jaero would not see as a spy. Something that would fit in as normal and be basically unnoticed.,"

Sarrik continued, "When we saw the battle you and he had with the bad guys, we went and talked to Ayn-Jil about calling in some members of the Angels to help with a rescue. Grenn got seriously angry when you threw sand at his pride and joy." Sarrik again smiles in a manner that doesn't exactly put one at ease, "You should have seen him. Hard to believe someone that big could jump around like that, hahahahahahaha" Sarrik took another long pull on his drink, frowned, turned the mug upsidedown and said to Vor, "Well, might as well get this over with, come on inside. We have some major decisions to make before we get back to town."

Vor thinking this was a strange thing to say followed in Sarriks wake, thinking to himself that he had a bad feeling about what was going to happen when he entered the farm house ahead. What was going on in there that had Sarrik worried? Who was that female human and what had she done that had given him that strange feeling? Well, nothing to do but stride ahead and find out, he thought as he entered the front door of the building.

As Vor was about to enter the building, he felt a small insect bite at the back of his neck and swatted at it. While it had been quite some time since an insect had managed to penetrate his tough hide, he knew the proper response was to swat with the intent to kill. As he entered the cool interior of the farm, he examined his hand but found no crushed insect. Shrugging, Vor followed Sarrik to an interior room where he could already hear voices raised in debate.

"And I tell you, it was not chance that those desert scum attacked Vor and Jaero. Someone was behind it. Anyone can see that this group was far to well organized and supplied for it to have been a random encounter!" Said the human female that Sarrik had called Ayn-Jil. She was seated at a large table with 5 others. The room was packed far beyond it's usual capacity with the huge number of leather clad beings.

Sarrik motioned for Vor to stand at a spot near the front of the crowd. Vor noticed that the large number of beings must be overworking the cooling units for the building as the he started to become somewhat warmer than usual. The huge Mon Calamari that Sarrik had called Grenn spoke next, "Well, I did my best in the time alotted to me, but even with twice the time I could not have outfitted the spider droid that Latru hid in thier speeder with any audio equipment."

"And even if I had that...that Vor creature may well have ruined it! Imagine throwing sand of all things at a delicate piece of machinery like that! Harumph!" As he finished, Ayn-Jil signaled for silence and began to speak, "Well, be that as it may, we have casualties. The Board will not like the loss, but we were all volunteers and on our own time. So what we have to figure out now is what to do to prevent this exact thing happening again."

Vor was feeling quite uncomfortable now with the rising temperature. He began to look at the others in the room to see if any showed signs of being hot. None that he saw seemed overly stressful from the environment. "Vor, can you shed any light on what happened? Jaero will not be able to speak to us for at least several cycles and we very much need information to plan how to proceed from here." Said Ayn-Jil.


Vor stepped forward fully ready to tell the entire tale of what had occured in the wastelands and of his "brothers" involvment, when it came to him suddenly that these beings could very well be in league with the assassin as well, and only drawing him out to see if he would go to others for help. The heat in the room had vanished at the same time that Vor had received the revelation about these beings. Knowing somehow that all those in the room were most likely working with his brother, he stepped forward and spoke.

"Vor knowing not many much telling you! Being dead seconds being later if speaking is! Out Vor going is or beings being many much sorry stopping Vor trying!" This said, he leaped towards the nearest door, bowling over every human, bothan and mon calamari in his path. Several times he struck out here and there to clear the path, always pulling his strikes. He did not wish to kill these beings just to escape, but kill he would if they attempted to stop him.

As he was nearing the door, a zabrak who seemed vaguely familiar stepped into his path. "Vor! I don't know what is going on in that head of yours, but you need to settle down and help us get this whole affair into perspective." Vor did not slow as the zabrak spoke but advanced menacingly. "I am warning you Vor, I will put you down if I must, but one way or the other you are going to explain this violence towards those that have just helped save your life!"

As he neared the zabrak, he remembered that this one was lethal with his hands. Not knowing nor caring where the knowledge came from, he rushed forward and managed to grab the zabrak around the middle in a crushing grip. Suddenly, pain exploded in his ears. Momentarily stunned he lost his grip on the zabrak and found himself on his back in the sand.

Vor unable to decide what exactly had just happened was again overwhelmed by the need to escape this place and these beings that would kill him or turn him over to Venta to be slowly killed. As the zabrak passed close to him, he reached out and grabbed an ankle. The zabrak reacted violently and Vor absorbed several kicks and hand strikes before he managed to gain his feet. swinging the being by the leg Vor managed to smash its head into a wall.

The zabrak fell immediately out of action. Vor dropped the figure into a crumpled heap on the floor and ran out into the open front courtyard. As he approached one of the swoop bikes, two humans and a wookie fell on him and attempted to wrestle him to the ground. But here, Vor had the advantage, for he did not feel the need to hold back for fear of hurting a friend. Grabbing a human by the left arm, he swung it around and used it as a living club against the wookie. Both wookie and human were out of the fight. The remaining human retreated, hands in the air before him.

The house was just beginning to empty as Vor raced away in the speeder he and the traitor human Jaero had been given by the twi'lik Latru. It was obvious to Vor now that the twi'lik had given it to them already outfitted with a homing device on it and sent the human along to be sure Vor did not find and remove it. He would show them. As soon as he found a place to hide, he would find the device and trick them.

Vor was not sure exactly what it was that had opened his mind to these beings duplicity, but he thanked the great egg that the heat in that farm had made him search thier faces. It was right then that Vor had been sure. The Avians were out to get him!

If Vor were himself, he would have noticed the dust cloud that was following him just at the edge of visual range. And the cause of that cloud was a battered yet fully poised Sarrik staying just far enough back to avoid detection. 'Don't know what made that lizard attack us like that, but NOONE hurts Avians and gets away with it! Not to mention the full set of lumps I personally owe him.' Thought the zabrak as he screamed after the speeder on the borrowed swoop bike.

Vor saw a swoop bike parked near a cave some distance ahead and decided to stop and see if he could either remove the tracking device that the Avians must have planted in the speeder or steal the swoop bike and make good his escape that way. As he approached the parked bike, he noticed that it had a symbol he was not familiar with emblazoned on the engine compartment.

He stopped the speeder a short distance away from the cave and waited to see if his presence had been noticed by the owner of the swoop. When no movement came for a short time, Vor cautiously approached the cave entrance. 'Could be a setup.' thought Vor. The Avians had seemed to be his friends until he had suddely known that they were in league with someone that wanted his head. He would take no chances on whoever occupied the cave.

Sarrik had parked his swoop some distance away and made a stealthy approach to the cave area. He noticed right away the Consortium symbol on the swoop parked outside. 'Well, that explains Vors behaviour, he must be working for those bastards!' thought the zabrak to himself. The only thing that Sarrik could not understand was why save Angus' life if he were Consortium? Granted the Avians had an understanding with them at the moment, but there were bad feelings that remained in many among both groups.

As Vor entered the cave, his eyes adjusted and he saw immediately that there was a small glow tube on the floor some distance inside and that a short slim zabrak was sitting near it polishing a weapon of some sort. As he watched the zabrak, a small stone came loose under his foot giving away his presence. Before Vor could react, the zabrak had smashed the glow tube and all was thrown into darkness.

Vor moved quickly from his hiding spot. He knew that the zabrak had a good idea where the sound had come from and he had no intention of being an easy target. In the very few seconds it took for Vors exceptional eyesight to begin to make out details, Sarrik had also entered the room and was watching the scene with some small amount of satisfaction due to his being the only one wearing vision enhancers.

The unknown zabrak and Vor moved silently here and there seeking the better position to attack the other from. Twice Sarrik saw the zabrak fire the compressed gas dart gun at Vor. Both times the projectile was deflected by just the tiniest piece of stone outcropping or the edge of a stalagmite. Slowly Sarrik made his way around behind the other zabraks current position.

Vor was at a loss. The zabrak seemed to have night vision nearly equal to his own and had almost hit him twice with that strange weapon. The zabrak had him pinned down behind a small hummock of stone that rose from the cave floor. Vor could not move from his current position without becoming a clear target. As he watched over the stone for a break to make his move, he saw the movement of yet a third being in the cave, behind and slightly to the right of the zabraks position.

Now he was trapped as surely as if he had stuck his head into a rancor sling. He was sure that the second figure would move around behind him while the zabrak kept him pinned. Vor began to search the cave surfaces for a weapon, any weapon that he might use to escape. With no other alternative, he reached back, grabbed a large stalagmite and snapped it off the floor with a loud CRACK, that echoed thoughtout the cave.

Sarrik was nearly in a position to attack the other zabrak when Vor had procured his stone weapon. The noise had caused the other zabrak to lower his weapon and look over the crate he was hiding behind. This was the opportunity Sarrik had wanted. Leaping through the air, he shoulder slammed the other zabrak into the floor. Even with surprise on his side though, the zabrak had twisted with the blow and it had only partially connected.

Flipping to his feet, Sarrik was on the zabrak in an instant. He was surprised to see that the other was also already on his feet and awaiting his attack. The other zabrak put up a good defense but was no match for the methodical Teras Kasi master. Sarrik used a series of hammer blows to the others midsection followed by a spinning side kick to the head and a final hammer blow to the back. The zabrak hit the floor hard but did not stay there.

Vor watching this scene was taken aback by it all. Who was this other zabrak that had attacked the cave dweller? More than likely yet another carrion eater come to take Vor in for some reward or other. He was not about to become the prey of either of them, but was still not sure if he dared leave the protection of the stone hummock. Taking this all in, Vor decided to wait it out and face the victor of the current battle. He should be able to overcome the beaten and bruised winner with ease.

The other zabrak has yet to lay a hand on Sarrik, but had managed to impress him with his sheer stamina and ability to ignore the pain he must be feeling from the repeated blows that Sarrik had been landing. He could already hear the other wheezing as he breathed. 'Broken ribs. At least five by the way he is leaning to the left protecting that side.' thought Sarrik as he launched yet another series of blows at the other.

This last attack was too much for his opponant. After the initial axe hand chop to the left side ribcage, the other zabrak collapsed to the floor moaning and trying to breathe. Sarrik put his foot on the injured left rib and said, "Talk or pain, your choice!" The zabrak looked up at him defiantly. Sarrik brutally dug his foot into the broken bones. He could feel the parts grinding and snapping inside. Finally the other zabrak screamed in pain. "ENOUGH! Please please stop! Don't hurt me anymore! No bounty is worth this!"

Vor had heard the voice and recognized it. Sarrik! This would not be as easy as he had thought. He knew that he had gotten lucky at Natkai's farm with that ankle grab and that he may not be able to take the wiley Teras Kasi master down easily even if he were damaged from the fight. But he also knew that Sarrik was in it with all the others. They were all out to get him and he would not be taken alive. If he must kill, then so be it. He had killed before and he would kill again. Thinking this, Vor slowly made his way out of hiding and approached the area where the fight had taken place
Vor, hearing movement from the area of the fight, stopped moving forward and pressed himself to a wall while he listened for anything that would help him attack Sarrik successfully. He had seen the two zabraks going at each other and from his memory of Sarriks abilities, he knew what the outcome had been. His only hope was that Sarrik was now suffering from both the injury he had taken at the farm and possible futher wounds from this most recent fight.

Sarrik crouched down near the other zabrak and reached front of his tunic. As he did so, a wave of nausea overwhelmed him for a moment. Recovering his balance, he noticed that he was having trouble seeing from his right eye as well. He reached down and tore a long strip off his own shirt and used it to wipe the blood from his eyes. The exertion of the fight had caused the head wound to flow more freely.

He quickly used the strip of cloth to bind his head as best he could. No point in letting Vor have the upper hand due to being blinded by his own blood. As he finished he noticed the other zabrak was smiling at his injuries. Reaching down he ground the palm of his hand into the others injured ribs, again eliciting a scream of pain. "Now, before I smash all the other bones in your body, I suggest you tell me exactly what is going on here!"

Vor hearing the voice of Sarrik, pinpointed his location, and heafting his stone club, began to circle, looking for the perfect spot to attack from.

The other zabrak, coughed deeply and blood flecked his lips as he began to speak. "There is a standing Bounty on the trandoshan if he is brought in alive. There is also a bounty that was posted by anonymous sources for anyone who could cause a resurgence of problems leading to possible war between the Avians and the Consortium. I figured to get both bountys in one shot." Again the zabrak is raked by a coughing fit that brings further blood.

Seeing that the other zabrak may be close to death, he shakes him and says, "Listen you bastard! Talk or I swear I will make your last moments such an extasy of pain, that zabrak mothers will tell thier children the story to frighten them!" He can see the other zabraks eyes starting to glaze and again slams his hand into the broken ribs. The zabraks eyes clear from the pain and he continues, "I hired a painter to put the Consortium symbol on the bike and thought I would leave it and the dart rifle here for an Avian to find. That would have led to trouble and I would catch up to Vor in short order and make a double payday out of it."

Sarrik shook the zabrak and said "What did you use on Vor? It's not a poison that I have ever seen, so what was it?" "It was designed especially for Vor by another trandoshan named Venta. He is the one who posted the bounty for him. I was told that it would make him paranoid to the point where he would think the sand itself was out to get him. It won't hurt him other than that and it will wear off in a few hours at most." The zabrak looked as if he wanted to go on speaking, but he suddenly began to shudder as blood filled his mouth.

Dropping the dead body to the floor, Sarrik turned just in time to meet the rush of the drugged trandoshan. He easily avoided the clumsy strike of the huge stone club and a knife edge hand strike to Vors wrist made him lose his grip on the club. Unfortunately, in his current state, he did not avoid the return blow from Vor and found himself fetching up painfully against the cave wall. He had to remember that Vor had also been trained by a Teras Kasi Master.

And while the trandoshan seemed to have none of his former skill or speed due to the drug, he had more than his fair share of strength. Sarrik knew that he would have to hit and fade and not allow Vor to hit him again or this would end very badly for him. Already Vor was advancing on him hissing swinging both his clawed fists menacingly as he came. Sarrik spun up and off the wall hitting Vor squarely in the nerve cluster behind the left eye. Momentarily stunned Vor staggered back.

"Hit me being?!?! Dying being you now!" He screamed, the echo coming back painfully loud from the close walls as he ran at the zabrak. Sarrik dodged to the right and below Vors clumsy slashing attempt and slammed a double open palm strike to the nerves in the trandoshans armpit. Again Vor was staggered with the pain and now his left arm was all but useless. Feeling somewhat heartened by this Sarrik called out, "Vor! I don't want to hurt you! You were drugged by the other zabrak. he was hired to start trouble with the Avians and to take you in for the bounty someone named Venta had for your capture."

As he was talking, Sarrik was circling to what he thought was a better position. Just two or three more nerve strikes and Vor would be out of commision, if only he could stay conscious long enough to land them. He could see the trandoshan slumping against a stalagmite just a short distance away and leaped in for another strike, but this time, Vor was ready for him. Vor swung with all his strength and was gratified to hear the sound of breaking bones come from the zabraks collar-shoulder area.

Vor swung his right arm back for a slash that would have torn the zabrak in half if it had connected, but wounded as he was Sarrik was still maddeningly fast. He knew that one more hit would be the end of the badly wounded zabrak and began to stalk him into the darkened recesses of the cave. "Now dying being you! Teach all coming after Vor lesson is!"
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 15
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:40 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:04 pm
Posts: 360
Location: Southern Ca
Sarrik knew he had only one shot at taking Vor down. It was risky and might even kill the trandoshan, but it was all he had left. He had been forced to take off the vision enhancers, they were causing the head wound to bleed into his eyes and had become more hinderance than help. The darkness was nearly total as Sarrik moved silently into position for what he hoped would be the final blow of this fight. Wincing in pain he reached down with his left arm and grasped a hand sized stone.

Vor, still not able to use his left arm at all, was looking for the stone club he had dropped. He would teach the zabrak to attack him by smashing him to a bleeding pile of battered flesh. Finally he located the makeshift club and began to search for Sarrik his eyes slowly and methodically searching the darkness for some trace movement. There! Something had moved there to the left. Slowly Vor made his way to the kill.

As Vor passed his hiding spot, Sarrik sprang up and slammed the rock he was holding into the nerve center at the base of Vors skull. Light flared across Vors vision and pain slammed him to the floor as he passed into unconsciousness, the stone club clattered to the cave floor. Sarrik hastily backed away from the trandoshan, uncertain that his blow had been strong enough to do the trick.

After a short time, Sarrik made his way to crates that were stored in the cave and located another glowstick. He flipped the single use switch and the cave was bathed in soft green radiance. Sarrik sank heavily to the floor, wincing at the pain in his right shoulder. That strike had been more telling than Vor knew, he was sure that his collar bone and most likely his rotator cuff were smashed. Looking through the supplies that the dead zabrak had been prepairing, he found a water flask and took several large swallows.

Refreshed somewhat, Sarrik made his way over to the prostrate form of Vor. Using the net and the stone pegs he had found in the dead zabraks belongings, he slowly and painfully set about making sure the trandoshan could not get up if he were to awaken before the drug wore off. When he finished, he was light headed and very nauseous. Grabbing the water flask, Sarrik made his way outside the cave into the night air of the desert where he was violently ill.

It was some time before he was able to stop retching long enough the reach down to his belt and attempt to use the communicator he carried. "Any Avians, this is Sarrik, can anyone hear me?" At first there was only the sound of static from the small device, then slowly a voice, broken but definately there, could be made out. "Szrrrrkkkkkk..... are you.....shhhhhhhhzzzzzzzzz Hello?"

Sarrik chuckled to himself. "Angus. Can you home in on my signal? I am tired and too hurt to move around much." The voice of the man who was closer to him than a brother came through to him. "I hear you Sarrik, hold on we will be there as quickly as we can!" With that done, Sarrik found that he was again uncontrolably ill. The sound of the speeders and the swoop bikes was the most welcome thing Sarrik could ever remember.

As Angus and the others loaded Sarriks stretcher into a speeder, he explained all that the dead zabrak had said. "Listen, it wasn't his fault. He was drugged. I know he must be hurt, possibly even dead, I didn't check. I want you to go in there and get him ready for transport back to Corellia. I don't give a damn what the Board thinks, I am taking him back where I can keep my eyes on him."

Angus nodded at his friend and, taking some gear from the speeders storage space, headed into the cave to get Vor. He was taking no chances that the trandoshan would strike out in his drugged state if he were alive and awake. As he approached, he reached out a foot and kicked Vor hard in the shin. There was no reaction. Using the already placed net as a restraint, Angus put a restraining harness on Vor before he began to remove the stone pegs from the cave floor.

Vor had not so much as moved during the whole process. Angus satisfied that he would remain docile if he woke, called for some few Avians to help him carry the dead weight of the trandoshan out to a speeder. While he waited, he began to make a mental inventory of what was in the room. Vor, a dead zabrak, several broken off stalagmites and stalactites and about 20 crates of unknown content.

Never one to pass up some free items, Angus began to open and look through the contents of the crates. There were enough weapons and supplies here to keep a whole division of troops in fighting trim for quite some time. This would make a nice haul indeed. When the others arrived, he added his strength to thiers and got the trandoshan out of the cave and loaded on to a speeder. Before leaving however, he had one of the scouts place a portable force field over the cave mouth. Then all things set in his mind he sped away with the last Avians back towards civilization.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 16
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:53 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Angus approached the bacta tank that held his friend Sarrik. As he stood next to the tank, he reached out and placed a hand on it's smooth cold side. Turning to the medical droid he said, "How bad is it?" The droid moved to the side of Sarriks tank and plugged into the terminal. "Multiple skull fractures, crushed collar bone, dislocated shoulder joint, broken shoulder blade, four broken ribs, six broken fingers and multiple contusions and abrasions."

Angus frowned as the list ticked off mechanically. "How long will he be in healing? I want to be sure he gets the best care, no expense spared." The driod disconnected from the display and turned to face him. "Unknown. Patient personal strength always a factor in recovery time. Estimated from general injury and normal healing times would indicate at least twenty cycles, plus or minus five cycles. All patients receive the best care available here sir. Please do not worry."

Helpless to aid his friend any further, Angus makes his way to the Avian City militia building. Here is where Vor is being kept until his fate is decided. As he enters, three militia members come to attention and salute Angus. "Good day Sir. Can we help you?" "Yes, I am here to see the trandoshan, Vor." Angus says. The leader of the militia present, a Captain by the insignia on his armor, looks unhappy and says, "You know that the Board has ordered that he have no visitors that were close personal friends of Sarrik, sir. They feel it is safer for the prisoner if we keep him semi secluded for the time being."

Angus leaned against the entry frame and said, "Ok, let me put this another way. I was the one that brought him in. If I had wanted him dead I would have killed him while he was restrained, don't you think?" The militia captain shrugged and said, "I'm very sorry sir but orders are orders. And there is noone that was a closer friend to Sarrik than you sir." Angus grins and says, "Ok, friend. Let me try this just one more time. If you don't let me see Vor, I am going to go get the Rain, land her right in the street and blow a hole the size of your body in that wall there and THEN speak to him."

Vor looked up as Angus entered the cell block escorted by two of the city militia. Angus seated himself in the chair just outside Vors cell and looked in at the trandoshan. "They treating you ok Vor?" The trandoshan attempted a smile and said "Yes. Treating Vor better than deserving is being. Sarrik how is? Living being yes no?" Angus frowned and said, "He'll live. He is pretty badly damaged thought. That is the main reason you are not being allowed amy visitors. Some of the Avians are afraid that Sarriks friends might want to exact a little payback from your hide."

Vor looked downcast. "Vor deserving is death being. Attacked honorlessly did. No chance accept fight Sarrik had being." Angus saw that the trandoshan was clenching and opening both clawed fists convulsively "Vor, Listen to me. It was Sarrik who wanted you out of there and safe. He was the one that told me to get you somewhere and make sure that you were taken care of, so you can leave all the guilt in your locker. We have things to discuss and I need your full attention while we talk about them."

Vor looked into Angus' face and saw the concern there. He nodded and sighed heavily. "What Vor can doing being is?" The human grinned a little and said, "That's better. Now on to how we bust you out of here." Vor was taken completely by surprise by Angus' statement. He had no intention of breaking out. He had looked the cell over when he had been placed in it and was fairly certain that it would take little effort for him to make an exit. But he had been so depressed remembering what had happened while he was drugged that he had decided to wait and take what punishment was given to him.

Vor looked meaningfully at the two militia that had come in with Angus and were standing well within hearing distance of the human. Angus looked at them, then back at Vor laughing. "Don't worry about those two my friend, we have an understanding between us, they don't see or hear me and I don't blow up thier nice little building." Angus chuckled in what Vor thought was a menacing manner. "Besides, you don't belong here any longer. We had to put you here till the drug you were hit with wore off. Couldn't have you putting half of Avian City in the bacta now could we?"

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 17
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:57 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Vor was not sure that Angus had been correct in arranging his release from the militia holding cells but he was not going to waste time arguing with the human. Instead he spent the entire 15 cycles of Sarriks recovery prepairing for the zabraks release from the bacta healing tank. Even the medical droid had been forced to admit that it had never seen so rapid a rate of healing as Sarrik had exhibited. It seems that there was nothing weak about the zabrak including his will to live.

Fearing that having his face as the first thing Sarrik saw on his release would cause undue stress, Vor left that honor to Angus. Angus had refused a very lucrative job to be here today. "Not like I need the credits THAT badly." he said, "Besides, now I can lord it over him that I lost a mission because of him, hahahaha." Vor waited nervously in the reception area of the hospital. he went over all his preperations in his head repeatedly to be sure he had not missed anything.

When Sarrik and Angus appeared in the doorway, Vor went to his knees and bowed his head to the floor in the manner of the lowest student when faced by a Teras Kasi Master. He heard the two approach and felt the light touch on his shoulder that signaled him to rise. Looking up he saw the questioning look in Angus' face and the frown on Sarriks. "What the hell kind of welcome is this Vor? I just get out of bacta and you are out here on your knees like some student begging for recognition?"

Vor rasied his head. but kept his eyes locked on Sarriks knees. "Master! Vor being many much shamed! Vor asking being Honor Match getting rid shame name having is." Again he bowed his head to the floor waiting for Sarriks reply, but it was Angus who spoke first. "What?!?! He just got out of bacta and you want to put him right back in?!?! Have I misjudged you that badly Vor? Give the man some time to get back into his own for Jabba's sake!"

"Sorry Angus, usually I give you the benefit of the doubt, but this is something that me and Vor need to work out bewteen us. And if you interfere, I may be forced to forget our friendship till Vor and I get this over with." Having that said he spoke again to Vor. "You know what you are asking don't you? If you insist on an Honor Match I can refuse. But then I release you to cleanse your honor in a manner I am not ready to allow." Sarrik Sighed deeply. "I grant you your Honor Match. Rise and go to prepare. I will call on you when the time is of my choosing."

Vor had spent the previous three cycles in deep meditaion. He was just prepairing to go in search of Sarrik when Angus entered the small house Vor had been given to stay in for the time being. "Well, Vor, Sarrik sent me to tell you he is ready and waiting for you over at his training area. Let me give you a little piece of my mind before you go though." Angus seated himself on the stool across from Vor. "Sarrik is just barely out of bacta. While I do owe you my life, I own Sarrik many times over. And for him to say that this affair is more important than our friendship tells me a few things."

"Firstly it tells me that he thinks this is serious enough to not talk to me for the past three cycles. Secondly he feels that you are wrong to want this Match." Angus slouched forward in his chair looking very tired. "I have been talking with him all this cycle, and he has explained a little. A VERY little about this whole Teras Kasi honor system. I will not claim to understand what you hope to gain from this fight, but I will tell you this." Angus slowly got to his feet and then continued. "If Sarrik gets hurt badly or is killed." He paused, a look of pain on his usually just gruff demeanor, "I will try and get you out of here before the pudu hits the floor."

As he was about to exit Angus said over his shoulder, "But after that. I would watch my back very closely my friend. Very closely."

Vor made his way towards the traning area where Sarrik would be waiting. All along the street people watched Vor passing by. Some just curious, some in anger and some that Vor was unable to read at all. Wearing the Teras Kasi uniform of a novice, and the green and yellow armband that signified shame, he entered the home of Sarrik and made his way to the courtyard where Sarrik trained and worked out. As he entered he saw that Sarrik had erected the Circle of Equals for the honor match. This was more than Vor had expected.

As he approached the Circle, he saw Sarrik, wearing the robes of the Master Teras Kasi, speaking with Angus quietly. Vor approached and again knelt, head to dirt. Sarrik approached Vor and touched him on the shoulder, signaling him to rise. As Vor stood, he saw that Angus had left and they were alone. "Our honor is not a matter for public display Vor, don't you agree?" Vor of course would never agrue with a master and nodded agreement. It was of course Sarriks choice to have an audience or not. He was the wronged party and had the choice of many things this day.

"As the dishonored party, I say that we will fight weaponless. As the challenger you may select that degree of dishonor that you feel has been done and decide the outcome of the match. Death or Kasai?" Vor knew that he had nearly killed the zabrak, and would have if he had not been beaten in the cave. Bit he also knew that he would never say Kasai and end the match so the choice was the same as death for him. "Master, being hurt badly did I you. Much dishonor carrying Vor is. Choosing manner honor restored Vor gives being."

Sarrik was taken aback. This was a great honor for Vor to cede him this decision. As Sarrik looked Vor over, he saw the obvious pain the trandoshan was carrying in his heart and said, "I decide that the match shall be till Kasai. Please enter the Circle when you are ready." Saying this, Sarrik removed the mastery robe and stepped into the circle. As Vor entered the other side, Sarrik said, "Vor, no matter the outcome of this, you are a worthy being, and I would feel honored to train you in the rest of the Teras Kasi ways if we both survive this."

Vor looked across the Circle at this man that he had done such a disservice to and felt even more heart broken. For he knew that Sarrik would have to kill him to restore the honor he had lost. He nodded agreement at Sarrik and as was required, bowed low and made ready for the fight to come. Sarrik bowed, no less low than Vor had and also went into a ready stance. Ths silence became nearly oppressive before Sarrik said the word. "BEGIN!"

As the two circled for position, Vor thought to himself that no matter what, he would fight his best. He was also quite sure that his skills would be no match for Sarrik. Vor had learned his defensive skills very well, but had nearly none of the offensive skills that the zabrak would surely employ against him. The only thing he had that would possibly make the fight more equal was his vastly greater physical strength. And even this could be countered by the master he now faced.

As they circled, Vor thought he noticed a slight opening that Sarrik was leaving on his right side. Not to be fooled into a trap, Vor kept watch on this possible weakness as they continued to circle, both sizing up the other for an opening. It was Sarrik who finally made the opening move. With a blur of speed he lunged in and connected with a triple, open palm, strike to Vors chest area. The blows hammered the trandoshan back two paces, but otherwise seemed to have no effect.

Now Vor was certain that Sarrik would hold nothing back in this match. He had been afraid that the zabrak would not fight at top ability so that Vor could win and there-by return to an honorable standing within the Teras kasi precepts. The blows he had just absorbed negated that thought and even though this lessened his chances of winning, he was very happy to be treated as if he were Sarriks equal.

The second exchange left Sarrik staggered and Vor with first blood. Again the zabrak has flashing in for a hit and fade strike. But this time Vor was ready for him. A forward snap block and grab stopped Sarriks retreat and gave Vor time for a murderous backhand blow to Sarriks unprotected face. Sarriks was literally slammed to the canvas by the hit. When he rose, he had a small cut on his left cheek that oozed blood. Smiling he nodded at Vor to acknowledge the others ability.

The third attack went to Sarrik for damage done. Vor lumbered forward, feigned a claw strike to the zabraks head, and in mid swing changed direction for a disemboweling claw to the midriff. Sarrik was not fooled. Dropping into a side split, Sarrik blocked the claw arm and dropped Vor heavily to the canvas with a split side swoop kick to his ankles. Before the trandoshan had even completed the fall, Sarrik had back flipped onto his feet and was again ready to fight.

As Vor rose, he noted again the seeming opening to the right side of the zabraks defense. He was not sure if this was intentional or not, but he knew there was only one way to find out. Ashe came off the floor, he lunged forward in a clumsy tackle. Sarrik was prepaired for this. What he was not prepaired for was what Vor did next. As Sarrik started to move out of the way and allow Vor to rush past him and out of the ring,Vor dropped to the canvas and while sliding forward, shot a claw out lightning fast for a slash at the zabraks right side.

Sarrik was just barely able to recover from the mistaken move on his part to avoid the main part of Vors strike. Had the claw connected as intended, it would have taken the entire right side of his ribcage out of his body. As it was, the limited contact had left a gash from lowest rib to armpit on the zabraks right side which flowed blood. Sarrik moved to the opposite side of the circle while Vor regained his feet.

Vor was just barely back in fighting stance when Sarrik slammed a double hammer fist strike to the trandoshand stomach. As Vor bent forward from the blows, Sarrik hung his right arm around the trandoshans lowering neck, slid forward around to Vors back and snapped his neck backwards. As he pulled back, Sarrik heard a loud 'Snap' from Vors collar area.

Although stunned and in sudden pain from some broken thing in his neck, Vor reacted instantly. He jumped backwards and slammed to the canvas full force. Sarrik had been unable to extract himself from his neck and absorbed the entire impact of the fall. Sarrik lost his breath entirely and light exploded in front of his eyes. Vor rolled away and gained his feet slowly due to the pain that had gone from a single musician to a complete orchestra in his neck.

The fact that his greater strength was showing made Vor wonder again if it was possible that Sarrik was holding back for his benefit. This would be the most humiliating thing that could happen. If Vor won because the zabrak master Teras Kasi held back, the dishonor would be unbearable. This thought brought Vor to a state of anger that he had not felt since the death of master Gresh in the swamps of Dosha.

Unable to move his neck at all from side to side, Vor waited impatiently for Sarrik to rise again. Looking at the zabrak, Vor said, "You being say Kasai is yes..Ooooff" As Vor was in mid statement, Sarrik had rolled over, pulled his knees under himself and launched forward off the canvas, both outstretched. The strike took Vor completely unawares and connected fully just below the lung casings.

As he followed through, Sarrik completed a forward roll over Vors prostrate from and came to attack position. Vor however was very very slow to regain his feet. The hit had snapped his head forward and doubled the pain of his neck injury. As he slowly got to his feet, he heard Sarrik saying, "Vor, neither of us wants a death here today. You are a good fighter, but your lack of offense will be your undoing. Submit now and all honor is restored."

The voice seemed to come to Vor from some far away place. His pain level was far beyond any he had previously known and he was just barely able to see his opponent on the opposite side of the honor circle. Knowing that he was near the end of his strength, Vor decided on a single final all out attack. This would be it, all or nothing. Matching thought to action, Vor leaped through the air claws outstretched, grasping for the zabraks neck.

Sarrik easily sidestepped the clumsy attack and with hands locked into a single lethal weapon, smashed them down on the back of Vors neck as the trandoshan flew through the space he had just occupied. Vors weight slammed to the canvas and skidded completely out of the honor circle before coming to a crumpled stop against the large fountain some meters away.

Sarrik fell to the floor and sat breathing heavily, trying to ignore the pain from his badly slashed side. As he was reaching for the communicator to call for medical aid for himself and Vor, Angus was running forward to his friend. As Angus sat and looked over the wounds his friend had taken, he saw the extreme displeasure on Sarriks face. "You didn't really think I would let you two fight it out to the death did you?" Saying this he holstered the blaster he had been holding this whole time in his hand. "I had this set on stun just in case. I am not going to lose a partner nor a new friend to some honor contest that seems based more on a large male chemical balance than anything else!"

Sarrik was still very unhappy that his honor duel had been witnessed by Angus. He knew that the human would never understand. He was not Teras Kasi, and Sarrik did not have the patience to attempt to explain it. He would chalk it up to Angus' being human and leave it at that. In one way he was happy that his friend was here. "Get Vor some help. He may already be dead, I think I broke his neck." Seeing Angus nod his head in agreement, Sarrik happily passed out.
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 18
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:04 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Light. A place he knows. Everything is strange, dreamlike. Vor is sure that he is dead. This must be the abode of the Scorekeeper. There is another presence here, powerful, demanding. It calls to him. "Vor. You must come back. It is not for you to go yet." The voice is strange. He is sure he knows it, but it eludes his thoughts. "Who calls Vor?" He yells into the light. He senses amusement at his demand.

He tries to place where he is. This place of light that has no source is not a place he has seen and yet he knows it, feels safe here, comfortable. Again the powerful voice speaks. "Vor! You may not remain here. You are needed in the true world. The world of the material, not this world of the mind."

It is just at this moment that he knows where he is. He is within his own mind. This is his domain. Who is the other, the voice that has entered his thoughts and demands that he leave the solitude and peace he has found here? Suddenly the light changes hue. He can sense a form near him. There is no shape in this place, there is only being. He tries to give the presence form but fails utterly, it is far to powerful for him to shape.

"Who are you? How can you be here in my mind?" He thinks. The other laughs, the sound like crystal chimes in a strong wind. I am life, Vor, and I call you to me. Your time to leave me is not yet." He can almost 'see' the other now. A misty grey form that seems to be changing the light of this place to match it's own eminations. Vor can sense the awsome and terrible power it holds. He sees the light and the deep impregnable darkness, the strong duality of the other and is awed.

"Do you love me so much that you would have me then? Speak presence that calls itself Life!" The form turns darker, there is a flash of power that staggers Vor's ability to describe. The voice says, "No Vor. Even to preserve you I cannot speak what is not in my soul to speak. I do not love you, and yet you must return with me. If you will not do so by persuasion, then you will do so by force!" Vor is overcome by a wave of darkness that threatens to leave him screaming in this place forever.

Just as he is about to shrink to nothing, the darkness is pushed back by light that is painful to percieve. The light side of the other blazes forth. Vor can feel pity, the desire to nurture and heal wash over him. The other speaks, "No! I will not allow this to be! Only by your own choice shall you be delivered." The light flares and fades. The forms is again the misty grey of equal but divergent forces.

Vor knows what he must do. He begins to summon his entire being to fight this terrible other and drive it from him. The other senses his thoughts and laughs scornfully. It does not fear him. Vor build and builds, forcing the shape from him. Now he feels the anger of the other at his ability to move it from it's intended place. The other fights back. Pain, anguish, utter dispair roll over him in wave after wave. Summoning the last of his strength he throws it at the form as one single command. "GET OUT OF MY MIND!!!!"

Vor opens his eyes at the sound of the cry and turns his head just in time to see the human female that Sarrik called Ayn-Jil fall to the floor, a look of pain on her face. The woman is quickly scooped up by the human called Aeric that Vor met at Latru's cantina. The human places the woman on a bed some distance from Vor's and calls for the medical droid. As soon as the droid attends to the woman, Aeric storms over to Vor and says, "I don't know how or what you did, but she was trying to save you! The doctor told her that you had lost the will to live and she came to try and help you back to us."

The humans face is red with anger as he returns to the womans bedside. Just then a new voice comes from behind Vor. A voice he knows well. "Well, well, Welcome back to the land of the living Vor." Angus MacGregor says as he comes over. Seeing Aeric at the other bed with Ayn-Jil, he goes there to see what is wrong, frowning as he does. Vor cannot hear the conversation, but there is much hand movement and the occasional loud remark from Aeric.

As he wonders exactly what happened, he sees the human Ayn-Jil stir and try to rise. Both Angus and Aeric quickly help her to a sitting position. She sits for a moment then, again with the aid of the two, gets to her feet and moves towards Vor's bed. As she approachs, he again feels the strange Fire Tea reaction in his head. A sort of disoriented buzzing. Strangely he also feels the same powerful presence that he drove out of himself earlier.

The human female smiles at him and says, "Welcome Back. You are quite the hard one to get a hold of." This seems to amuse the quickly strengthening female and she laughs as she passes out the door. Aeric and Angus both come to stand near Vor's bed. A look of wonder on Aerics face and one of knowing mirth on that of the smuggler. As Angus helps him toa sitting position he feels the strange buzzing in his head lessen and stop all together.

As he gets to his feet, he hears a laugh as Aeric says, "Well, at least 'your' armor is in tact. You should see the mess Jaero made of his! Hahahahahaha" This said, Aeric begins to make a fairly detailed inspection of the armor as it lays near Vors bed, asking him questions as he does. He seems quite happy with the answers he recieves. "So, would you like the armor? At a much reduced cost of course." He grins at the trandoshan. "I am after all a businessman."

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 19
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:07 pm 
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Location: Southern Ca
Vor had just finished polishing his scales with the oil that Sarrik had provided. This oil had some fairly interesting properties, one of which was the ability to allow Vor to slip nearly any grip or grasp. The oil also made it nearly impossible to make the trandoshan prisoner with a rope of tie. This along with the skill of dislocating his outer claws, also taught by the Teras Kasi Master zabrak, had given Vor the ability to escape in nearly any circumstance.

If you added to this the offensive skills that he was currently learning from Sarrik, you would find a combination that was, if not instantly lethal, totally impossible to contain. Sarrik had been quite pleased with his students progress to date and had made this known in more than verbal praise. Vor now found that he was the proud owner of his own complete set of Teras Kasi weapons. Granted these were few as a Teras Kasi truely needed no other weapon than his own good hands, but all the same it was quite an honor to have them given by ones master.

Vor finished with his scales and admired his shining appearance in the mirror. He was happy. It had been so long since he had been genuinely happy that he had almost passed the feeling off as poor digestion when it had first happened some weeks ago. Sarrik had been there shortly after Vor had come from the place of healing and had asked him if he would like to honor the memory of his old Master and continue his Teras Kasi training.

Vor had fallen to his knees and head bowed and touching the dirt of the street, had been totally speachless. Sarrik touched him on the shoulder, signaling him to rise and said, "Listen Vor, we both know it hasn't been an easy time for you. I would be more honored than you to be your Master and finish the teaching that your Master Gresh began. So, if you wish to honor his memory by learning all I can teach you of Teras Kasi, I will promise that your training will be second to none!"

Vor looked up and , still unable to speak, nodded his ascent. Sarrik was about to speak again when several Avians came around the corner chatting amongst themselves. Sarrik quickly dropped his hand from Vors shoulder and said, "Well, if that is settled, let's get you set up at my place. Not like I have all cycle to waste standing around out here in the sun." This was another example of the duel personality that Sarrik seemed to have.

Vor had noticed and was still seeing the two sides of his teacher. There was the Master Sarrik, teacher of Teras Kasi arts and friend, and then there was the public persona that he showed. The first was an honorable friend and teacher who would avoid violence unless forced to fight. The second was the loud and abrasive Sarrik that the outside world saw. This Sarrik would fight at the drop of a hat and while never outright hostile was rude nearly to the point of insult. And the more he cared for the person in question the more coarse and rough he acted.

Vor had come to appreciate these two sides of Sarrik. While he would not emulate him in this respect, he still found him as good a teacher if not the superior of Master Gresh.

As Vor placed the oil onto the one shelf in the spare cell he occupied in Master Sarriks compound, he thought of what might lay ahead for him. He had been active in the Creature Handling trade that he had mastered and was making quite a good number of credits in this way. Why just the other cycle he had sold a pair of dewbacks to a local caravan master. The caravan master had been quite impressed with the quality of the animals and had promised to send more business Vors way then he returned to the city.

Vor made his way to the training area which was the center point of Master Sarriks home. Today he would run the gauntlet and see if maybe he could actually make it through without hurting himself or the equipment. Vor, it turned out, was very hard on equipment. In the beginning of the training he had managed to get angry at three seperate machines and had lost control and smashed them to small pieces. Sarrik had been quite angry.

"How do you expect to be able to fight when you lose control to a machine! A real opponant would make use of your anger and beat you senseless after baiting you into a foolish attack." He had then gone on to insult and berate Vor, Vors heritage, parentage and general poor hygene untill Vor had snapped and attacked him hissing with rage. The attack was both foolish and short. When Vor woke up to the bucket of cold water that Master Sarrik poured onto his head, he had no remembrence of what Sarrik had done to immobilize him.

"Ok. First we start by removing that anger. As long as it lives inside you, you will never be able to master the meditations of a master of Teras Kasi." Looking back now, Vor realized that it had not taken all that long, working with his zabrak teacher, to master and then completely control his hidden rage. During the time it had seemed as if it were taking forever and that he would forever be a slave to his hate. But now with it completely under his control, he was sure it had been the work of a few cycles.

His thoughts were interupted by his entry to the open area of the traning grounds. Before him were set the machines that would simulate the gauntlet he must run. Seating himself on the ground in the position demanded for the beginning of the meditations. As he began the meditations, he was peripherally aware that Master Sarrik had entered and was waiting near the first of the many machines.

Having gone through all the forms and rites to strengthen his mind, body, spirit and concentration, he slowly made his way back to full awareness and moved to a position near Sarrik. As was proper he knelt and bowed to his master. Sarrik signaled him to rise and spoke. "Are you ready to run the gauntlet that will give the status of Adept my student?" Vor could sense the tension in his masters voice.

Vor said, "Being ready is Vor yes no? Yes!" "Then prepair yourself student for the test begins...NOW!" Saying the last work, Sarrik snapped on the array of machines and stood back to see the progress his student would make this day. Vor ran forward and vanished into the maze of machines.

As he had been tought, Vors mind automatically began to assess the strengths and weaknesses that the machines would have. While the machines would be programmed with static movements and attacks/defenses, they were also much faster than a human opponant would be. Also, although the machines were programmed to react to a strike as if it had actually done some damage, he would in fact be unable to disable or kill a machine.

All of this was through his thoughts in less than the time it took to reach the first of the staging areas. Here five combat droids awaited him. Vor did not slow his pace as he approached them, running full out at the first of the droids. Just as the droid was about to sidestep and use his own inertia for a check throw, he spun to the side and delivered a flying double kick to the droid that sent it spinning through the air and out of the staging area.

"One down." He thought as he snapped to his feet to face the four remaining droids that were closing on him. Slowly the droids circled watching for any opening to attack. This was another weakness in them, they would not attack until they saw an opening. As long as Vors defense was perfect, there would be no attack. This of course could not go on long as a stalemate was not what he was fighting for.

As they circled, Vor assessed each droid in turn. They were as he had expected, all of the same type. A general purpose, inexpensive combat testing type in the J series. Very advanced for thier type, but still limited to performing only what they had been programmed for. This gave Vor some small advantage. The droids would react in a set way to each attack.

On this pass of the circling droids, Vor reached out, lightning quick and grabbed the arm of the droid to his right. The right arm of the droid came down on an open hand strike at the wrist of the restraining hand. Vor smashed it away with his left arm. Then executing a series of strikes that he had been working on in his spare time, released his right handed grip, swiveled to his right slightly, regrabbed the droids arm with his left hand and drove his right, claws extended into the area where an armpit should be.

The effects of this new and untried move were immediate and quite impressive. As Vor had hoped, the driods arm was sheared off completely in a shower of sparks. This, unfortunately, was the last thing that Vor had time to loose his attention to. The other three droids, seeing him focused on thier companion, had closed in for the attack. As the droids arm was coming off, the other droids made good Vors lack of attention. One droid to each arm they restrained him as the third moved to an attack position directly in front of him.

The strength of the grip on his arms forced him to lose his grip on the droid arm he had hoped to use as a weapon. Hissing in anger, Vor cursed his own total immersion in his new attack and lack of attention to his surroundings. This was not the first time he had let his lack of attention get him into trouble. And this time the droids were as strong as he was. No advantage to be had there, and at this time they not only had all of the available leverage, he was completely at thier mercy. As if a droid had any such concept.

As the two droids holding his arms exerted thier full strength, pulling his arms waide, the third drove in with a forward drop kick. The blow connected fully and knocked the breath from the trapped trandoshan. The droids holding his arms never moved at all which also translated a goodly portion of the strike damage to his shoulders. This was more than Vor could tolerate. He knew it was his own lack of thought that had allowed this to occur, and his anger flared and red flashed into his yellow eyes.

With an effort that nearly tore his own arms out of thier sockets, Vor threw himself forwards, then as he felt the droids restraint change, he lunged backwards. As he changed the momentum of his movement, he felt the droids begin to lose control and wrenched his arms together. The two restraining droids were thrown together with such force, that when Vor felt thier grips relax and backflipped away to get distance from the last of the droids, he could not tell where one droid ended and the other began.

The heap of junk that had been two fully functional combat droids but a moment before, fell to the ground in a sparking, jangling mass. Vor assumed a defensive stance and prepared to meet the last of the droids, already nearly within reach for an attack.

The anger still showing red in his eyes, Vor had had enough of these machines. As the droid threw a left hand open hand chop towards the left side of his neck, Vor ducked, grabbed the arm in his own right hand and drove an open palm strike with his left hand to the elbow joint, smashing the servos in that area. The droid retreated, right arm dangling from the smashed elbow joint, but Vor was not finished with it yet. As the droid retreated, it tripped over the remains of one of its fallen comrades and went down in a jumble.

Vor was on the droid before it could extricate itself from its downed fellows wires and gears. He picked the droid up by the neck and the left leg and raised it up over his head. With all the strength he could muster, Vor brought the droid down on his rapidly rising right knee. Such was the leverage and strength in the enraged trandoshans grip, the droid was torn completely in half when it struck.

Contemptiously, Vor hurled the remains from himself to fall against the far wall of the staging area. Slowly, slowly, Vor began to calm himself. He knew that while his anger had been a benefit against this test, he would not have needed it had he been better prepaired for this match and had he stayed in control from the outset. The remaining tests would require his complete concentration and control to master. As the red left his eyes and his anger subsided, Vor began to move forward for the next of the tests. He would not fail again!


As he approached the next challenge area, Vor became aware that he was slowly losing his ability to see. Something in the air was causing his eyes to sting terribly. At first it was just a matter of blinking more than usual, but now had become such an irritant that he had been forced to close his inner eyelids. With the nictitating membranes closed over his eyes, his normally superior eyesight was reduced to that of the average human. This was most disturbing.

Vor nearly tripped over the small lighted beacon that showed he was in place for the next of the challenges before he was aware of it. The visibility had been reduced to no more than a few inchs from his face and he had only found the beacon from his inate sense of direction. Within seconds, the entire area was thrown into complete darkness. Normally this would not be a problem for the trandoshan, but with his inner eyelids closed, his night sight was poor to non existant.

As he had been taught, Vor closed his outer eyelids and slowly, slowly began the process of centering his thoughts around his ability to sense heat patterns in the surrounding environment. This had been taught to him by Master Gresh as a last resort defensive ploy if he had been partially or completely blinded. Unfortunately the process was both time consuming and disorienting.

He was only partially through the process when he felt a metalic tenticle wrap suddenly around his left leg and begin to haul him towards what he could only assume was a very nasty surprise. Ignoring the movemen and closing his mind to all other thoughts, Vor continued the heat sight opening ritual. He began to be able to make out dim and unformed masses near him that stood out in reds and yellows. The tenticle around his leg was a black mass of cold metal trailing off into the distance.

Though the process was difficult, once done, the full force of Vors concentration was focused onto the sensing of his surroundings. The world was quite a different place in this sense, full of darkness and flaring heat. The colors were wonderous and terrible all at the same time. It would be more moments yet before Vor was able to make heads or tails of what he was seeing. Even for one trained in its use, the heat sight confused the brain and confounded the intellect.

Reaching out, Vor tried to smash his left mid claw through the metal tenticle to stop his forward progress. All that he managed was to chip his claw, make a small dent in the metal and make a rather large divot in the ground. So much for that tactic. The metal was too tough for his claws to shear off. Maybe a test of strength would show better results.

As he was dragged near a silent machine, Vor braced his right leg against the base, grabbed the restraining tenticle in both his hands and pulled back with all his might. Blood showed as he bit through his lip from the strain. The machine that had him was incredibly strong. Throwing his entire might into the pull, a roar of frustration escaped his throat as he was pulled away from the bracing machine and lost all leverage.

Ahead he could make out the just above room temperature outline of the machine the tenticle had deployed from. With his limited heat sight all he could tell for certain was that it seemed to be mainly composed of grinders and great sharp stationary blades, and the tenticle rode a safe trail right down the center of the engine of destruction.

It was obvious that Vors hide would not slow those huge grinders down for even a moment. If he were pulled inside, the most he could hope for was to create a somewhat pleasing pattern of doshan blood as he was dismembered. What was he missing? There had to be some simple thing that had eluded him this whole time, but what?!? As he looked around he saw it. The answer to his need.

There on the left side of the gaping maw that awaited him was a darker than room temperature rectangle with a fiercly glowing hot point the size and shape of a lighted switch. Vor instantly saw that if he did not try for the switch now, he would not have enough slack in the metal restraint to reach it in time.

He leaped up and nearly went down again as the unfamilier weight of the tenticle slowed his reaction time. He moved with all the speed he dared towards the switch only to find that he was already some claw lengths too short to reach it. This was more than he could stomach. Hissing, he reached out with both hands and grasped the edge of the machine and pulled. The strain on his leg was incredible and the pain reached a level so severe he thought he would lose consciousness. He knew that should this happen, he was dead.

Again reaching into himself, Vor found and turned a switch in his own psyche, and the pain was gone. With that he redoubled his efforts to reach the switch. He could feel the pressure on his leg and heard the pop and snap of bones and tissue that was strained far beyond its limits to endure. Reaching deep deep down, Vor pulled one last time and lunged forward, smashing the switch and stopping the terrible pull on his tortured limb.

The sudden release of the restraint, threw Vor to the ground on his face, panting from the effort he had just put forth. He was still unable to feel anything in his left leg and thought this was probably for the best till he was done with the trials. As he lay, face down, Vor tried to release the heat sight for a more conventional vision and found that he did not have the strength to change back. he would be forced to see in the colors of the world of temperature till he gained some strength back.

Slowly he got to his feet. This effort was hampered somewhat by the lack of any sensation in his left leg from the hip down. Vor had trained for this also. Using the leg as if nothing were wrong with it, he moved at a good pace towards the area where he knew that the third and final challenge awaited. He had no time to sit and rest and he was unsure of his ability to face the last of the challenges with limited mobility and only his heat sight to lead him, but he would fail with dignity before he would pass in shame! Matching thought to deed, he approached the third beacon and awaited the start of the challenge.
Vor was beginning to think that the third challenge may never start. He had used his generally good snece of direction to move towards the third beacon, but had been unable to locate it. At least he didn't think he had. The beacon was a soft blue light that would not register to his heat sight at all due to being a zero heat emission source. Hissing in frustration, Vor made his way around the entire area, shuffling his feet in the hopes if literally stumbling across the beacon.

He was on the brink of getting to his knees and crawling while feeling for the beacon when the dead weight of his left foot hit a snag. The beacon! Having found the starting point, Vor wondered how many times he had shuffled past this exact space. He knew that the challange started as soon as his life signs were detected by the beacon. As he settled into a defensive posture, he did his best to reduce the pain coming from his heat sight.

This combat area must be open to the direct glare of Corellias sun. Every surface seemed to scream yellows and dull oranges into Vors brain as he searched for any attack. The overload of heat signatures was starting to give him a serious problem. While he had trained his mind to accept the input and to be able to interpret this data, he had always trained at night and had never had to deal with such a huge number of images pouring into his head.

Closing his eyes was no relief as his heat sight was not dependant on his eyes for its use. As he attempted to focus on a spot with the minimum of heat coming from it, he sprang to attention as a new heat signature appeared coming form where he had been looking. The signature was somehow strangely familier, and yet also totally foreign.

The attacker was obviously a Doshan from the heat distribution, general size and form. Or at least an approximation of a Doshan that was machine created. Vor was fairly certain this was not a hologram due to the clearly defined heat patterns it left as it moved towards him slowly. Tracking the attacker would be difficult at the very least due to the variety of temperatures in the surrounding environment. Knowing this, Vor locked the complete form of his attacker in his mind and readied himself for what was sure to be a very very hard fight.

Before the attacker was withing arms reach, Vor took the initiative and leaped through the air for a flying spin kick to the head. Two upraised arms in a forward block stopped his momentum dead. As he fell to the ground, Vor realized that this was a combat droid in the image of a doshan and programmed with a good approximation of his own skills. He attempted to flip back to his feet and stumbled to the left as his dead leg refused to hold his weight.

He may have had some small advantage were he not half crippled and nearly blinded, as all droids even the most advanced, had slower reaction times than living beings. But with his left leg nearly useless and only his heat sight, this would be the fight of his lifetime, possibly his last. Granted the machines were never supposed to actually kill you, but machines were machines and sometimes things just happened.

All of these thoughts flashed strough Vors head in the tiny fraction of time it took for the droid to attack. Vor had been unable to restore his balance before the attack struck home. The droid had obviously analysed the weaknesses of it's opponant as it's first attack was a sweep kick to the right leg that tore the leg out from under him and slammed him onto his back in the dust. As the clawed foot of the droid decended in a skull crushing stomp, Vor managed to roll to his right in time to recieve only a small scratch to the left side of his face from the attack.

Rolling, then executing a perfect side flip to fighting stance, Vor was as ready as he would ever be to face off against the droid. Gone! He had lost the heat signature during the movement to regain his feet. Quickly he pivoted scanning the surrounding air for a signature or a heat trail. As he turned, again the droid struck, this time from behind. The droid looped its arms under Vors and reached around to place its hands at the back of his head. This was called a full grapple and would surely break the neck of an unprepaired opponant.

Now was the time to see if the droid had been programmed with a doshans weaknesses as well as his own strengths. Vor bent forward, stepped back and then, droid still attached, performed a forward rolling leap that ended with the droid crushed between his body and the very hard ground. At impact, Vor reached back with both hands and slammed his open palms against the earslots of the droid. This would have exploded a doshans ear canals and was no less effective on the droid. The alloy like grip slackened just the tiniest amount and Vor exerted his strength to break free of the grapple.

Gaining his feet, Vor noticed that the droid must have been programmed to approximate injuries sustained in the combat. There were heat trails streaming from the earslots of his opponant and it was moving in a slugish manner as it regained its feet. Now was the time to end this match. As Vor rushed in, the droid executed the correct stop block to his initial foot sweep and also managed to somehow block the right hand claw strike to its abdomen. It failed however to block the left handed side slash to its throat.

As the droid fell to the ground with its hydrolic life fluids bubbling from the huge gash in its neck, Vor slumped to the ground exhausted. He still had things to do he reminded himself and quickly began the meditative process needed to release his heat sight. While he was doing this he noted that he was no longer alone. But as the other presence did not attack him immediately, he went on with his meditations. As he came out of his trance, he opened his eyes and his breath was taken away by the colors and richness of vision he always experienced after releasing his heat sight.

Slowly slowly he removed the pain block from his mind and began to check the extent of the damage to his left leg. The pain was not sharp and immediate signaling that there were no breaks or dislocations. Instead it was the deep steady throb of overworked muscles. No damage that he could percieve. Then, and only then, did Vor acknowledge the other presence. He looked up and nodded to Master Sarrik to signify that his meditaions were complete. Sarrik, Vor noticed did not seem all too happy, but then Sarrik never really seemed to show outward happiness. Vor had found it was usually best to wait and see how his words seemed.

"Well my student." Sarriks sad as he stood. "As always you excel at the hardest of the challenges while failing the simplest utterly." As he turned to leave the disappointment was quite obvious on his countenance. "Again and again I tell you to stick to the basics and in every case you attempt some damn fool stunt that nearly gets you killed." Vor was entirely taken aback by Sarriks statements and his demeanor. "Maybe when you are ready, you will decide that your teacher knows what the hell he is talking about and decide to listen for a change. Until then I suggest you stick to fighting jawas because any real opponant would have killed and skinned you!"

This said Sarrik moved away towards the living areas of the compound. Vor was left to stew in his pain, both physical and in his heart. Again he had disappointed his master and he felt the shame of it like a great weight apon his neck. Head bowed from the weight of failure, Vor retreated to his sparse cell to meditate and attempt to purge the need to use new ideas and styles from his mind. Next time, he vowed, he would show his master his true worth!
At the same time that Sarrik was instructing Vor in the ways of the Teras Kasi, he was also secretly studying the Trandoshan language and what little he could find on thier culture. While his grasp of, as they called it, Doshan was progressing apace, his study of his students people was not following suit. Vor seemed to be nearly the antithisis of each and every cultural taboo that he read about for the secretive race.

For one thing Vor seemed to shun the religion of his people with a passion bordering on obsession. The mere mention of religion brought a reaction that can only be called absolute rage to the fore and would leave Vor silent for weeks at a time. Sarrik was not sure as yet why this was, and had decided to shelve tha matter until he had a complete graps on the language and could question Vor in his own language.

It was during this study that he read of the Krankara' Arunii. While this was listed in his data as a ritual that each Doshan was required to attempt, that was the extent of the information. No specifics could be found. While he was expending some grudgingly given credits for further information on Doshan culture, he was approached by a Rodian that he knew to be a heavy collector of Lost and rare technology. Teelo Arwin was about as slimy a figure as could be found anywhere but his pay was top notch.

"ahhhh friend Sarrik, a word with you if I may." Sarrik tucked the data disk he had just purchased at quite some cost into his jacket pocket and frowned as he looked at the rodian. "What do you want Teelo?" he said as he crossed his arms across his chest. The rodian continued as if this were the most affable greeting he had recieved today, which was more than likely true. "Ahhh I have a job that needs an expert. A being of exceptional courage and candor. A true archetype of the adventurer if you will." He smiled at Sarrik showing several teeth made from rare gems.

"I said, What do you want Teelo. That was not an invitation for your poor attempt at flattery. If you have a deal for me spit it out otherwise I suggest you move along as I am beginning to dislike the smell you leave in the air." Said the menacing looking zabrak. This seemed to have the hoped for result on the rodian. "Ahh. Ah yes. Well..yes I do in deed have a job that needs doing. I have just procured some information that leads me to believe that there may be a cache of rare Tech ao a planet just waiting for the right being to recover it. If we could talk in a less public place I would be most grateful." Teelo said looking hopefully at Sarrik.
The zabrak actually laughed at that. "Teelo, the last thing I want to do is keep your company a second longer than it takes to make this deal. Especially into an enclosed area." As he finished Sarrik leaned casually against the wall of the building he had just exited. "Ahhh. Well you see....it will be a most delicate mission." whispered the rodian. "You mean dangerous." Sarrik fired back at him. "Ahh danger..yes there may be a small amount of that involved if you were discovered. But I assure you you will fild the pay more than adequate." Teelo grinned sheepishly.

"Get to the mission details or I will start charging you by the monment for wasting my time and fouling the air with your stench!" Sarrik came off the wall suddenly and loomed over the rodian awating a reply. Teelo had nearly run for his life when Sarrik had bounded off the wall. "Yes the details. If you are interested, here is a data disk with all the mission information on it. Look it over and you can reach me through the usual channels to let me know if you will do it or not. I can of course trust to your descretion should you not choose to do it of course."

Sarrik looked at the rodian in mock anger, "Why you slimy little gundark! You have the nerve to first assume that I would lower myself to the level of knowing what your "usual channels" are and then you insult my integrity?!?!?! Leave now or die where you stand, you piece of filth!" With that he flipped the mission data into his pocket along with the Doshan data. Teelo, his fear now far more urgent than his desire to get the rare Tech., ran for his life squeeling miserably as he went. Sarrik, chuckling to himself walked to his parked swoop bike and with a last laugh at the rodians expense, rode for home.

As he approached the compound, Sarrik could make out a speeder at his home. This indicated visiters, possibly unwelcome ones. If they had disturbed Vor at his meditations, and he had not met them as yet, they may very well be in for a nasty surprise. Sarrik gunned the throttle and sped towards the compound, frowning at the thought of what he may find when he got there.

Entering the foyer, he could make out voices from the courtyard and was put at ease when he recognized the voice of Aeric. Aeric was a fellow Avian and was an expert armorer. He had provided Sarrik with some, shall we say, specialty pieces in the past that had been the difference between mission accomplished and death.

He instantly took in the entire courtyard as he entered. The area was scattered with gardens and training machines. He spotted Vor and Aeric there near the small waterfall. This was Vors favorite spot for meditation, and from experience, Sarrik knew that if Aeric had come in before Vor had finished, he had been forced to wait.

While Sarrik was not usually so, solicitous, he made his way to the cooking space and prepaird two heavily leaded glasses of Doshan fire tea which he placed on a small tray. To this tray he added a tall glass of loran fruit juice and a bowl of small yellow nanga berries. Thus encumbered, he made his way back to the courtyard.

Vor and Aeric had moved to one of the many small platforms that were placed here and there throughout the courtyard. They could be used for meditation, reading (each had a small built in holo projector) or as now, for a place to sit and relax with a friend or two. Even carrying the tray. Sarrik had approached with his natural stealth.

As he reached around to set the tray down, Aeric nearly jumped out of his skin. Vor of course had seen the approach of his master and hissed laughingly as Aeric reacted in the expected manner. Aeric and he had been discussing the specially modified armor that Vor was hoping to be able to purchase. His experience on Tattooine had shown him that Aerics armors were worth the cost and definately a boon to have.

Seeing what his master had brought, he immediately handed Aeric one of the heavy Doshan fire tea glasses and took the other for himself. While he hardly ever partook of this drink from his homeworld anymore, he had found that it was polite to drink when a guest had a drink. Aeric had gone back to his figuring on a datapad as soon as the surprise from Sarriks entry had left him and had not looked up till he caught the scent of the fire tea.

"What is this? Trying to get me drunk will not improve my design ability, nor will it help you on the price for this monster that you want made." said Aeric chuckling as he reached for the glass of tea. He took a very very small sip. As he swallowed, his face turned redder than usual and he began to sweat visibly. "Ahhhh. Sweet nector. You know I am quite sure that this must be toxic to the human system, hahahahahaha." Vor hissed in the correct manner at the humans joke and took a large swallow of his drink.

Sarrik for his part was as sitting back, drinking his loran juice and looking over a datapad readout. He had produced the mission disk from his jacket pocket and had promptly forgotten the others at the table as he scanned the general outline of what Teelo wanted and where it was likely to be found. He was not happy with what he read.

"Are you sure you don't want more armor thickness in the groin area Vor?" Aeric was saying still working furiously at the datapad. Vor thought it somewhat impolite that the human would sometimes not look at the person he was speaking to as he became intensely buried in the work at hand. "Not need is more area being. Vor race not same human having protective needs groin." External genitals! Again Vor laughed to himself. Humans always assumed that all the races were the same as themselves.

"Well, ok Vor. If the specs you gave me are what you really need, I think I can build this. It will take me some time and the cost may be a little bigger than even my best regualr armor, but it will be as close as possible to what you wanted." Aeric put the datapad into a pocket and raised his glass. "To a fruitful future partnership. I make the armor and you test it and put it to good use." Saying this, Aeric took a rather large drink of the tea.

It was clear as Vor excorted him to his speeder, that Aeric was more than just a little bit drunk and Vor was glad that he knew the auto pilot sequence for this speeder. Helping Aeric into the machine, Vor reached in and punched the instructions into the computer and watched as it sped off towards Aerics home/workshop. He was thinking that it might be a good idea to ask one of the Avian doctors if fire tea was in fact toxic to humans as he reentered the courtyard.

His train of thought was interrupted as Sarrik motioned him back to the platform. As he seated himself, Sarrik removed the data disk from the datapad and placed it in the holoviewer. The image came from the machine as a blob of unreadable light. Sarrik swore and hammered at the controls with his fist for a moment. With a final kick to the table, the blob of light became a sharp, crisp image. Vor thought this was, as he was finding many things these days, very funny.

Vor had noticed that there seemed to be two schools of thought regarding technology. The first was that the use of endearing terms and the show of affection for a machine would promote correct functionality. Sarrik belonged to the opposing school of thought. This group seemed to believe that a machine could be threatened into correct function by physical and verbal abuse. Vor had been at first surprised and then amused to see that both of these schools of thought seemed equally viable when it came to actually getting any sort of results.

As the image became clear, Vor could see that it was mission data of some sort. As he begane to study the general outline, Sarrik spoke. "So, now that your toy purchasing is out of the way, how about we get to work and make some money?" Sarrik leaned back in his chair and popped a handful of the nanga berries into his mouth. Vor knew better than to think he would speak while he was eating. As Sarriks swallowed, he began again.

"The person involved is not to be trusted and the data is most likely lacking detail in the most vital area. The assumption that there will be fairly little danger. The slimy little rodian that wants me to take this mission would not be in the slightest put out if I were killed while attempting it. So. That leaves us with the final question. Do we take it or not. The pay is actually more than what I expected from the source."

Sarrik again took a handfull of the berries and made himself comfortable. Vor began to study the mission data more closely. "Why master Vor taking is, mission being?" he said. It was fairly clear that the mission was intended for Sarrik and Sarrik alone. The zabrak nodded as if he had expected this question.

"Because I don't trust that little piece of nuna pudu. Almost noone outside Avian knows I have taken you as a student. The potential employer has always in the past made a showing of minimizing the danger. The fact that there is little or no mention of the dangers on this mission, I can only assume that they are many and varied. I don't like being tricked, but would like being dead even less."

Sarrik looked at Vor and continued. "You will be my secret weapon so to speak. Your training is coming along well, and..."Sarrik hesitated here. This was something Vor had never seen before. His master was always forthright and spoke his mind with little or no regard for how it effected others. "The truth is, I can use your help on this one. There I said it. If you ever repeat it I will call you a slimy lier." Sarriks face seemed to Vor to look as if a weight had been lifted rather than the anger that the statement implied.

Vor looked again at the holo od the data. "Vor agreeing master with going Vor being. Question having is. What finding master being employer is Geonosis going for?" And why he thought to himself, would someone want anything from that taboo planet?
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 19
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:07 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:04 pm
Posts: 360
Location: Southern Ca
Vor had just finished polishing his scales with the oil that Sarrik had provided. This oil had some fairly interesting properties, one of which was the ability to allow Vor to slip nearly any grip or grasp. The oil also made it nearly impossible to make the trandoshan prisoner with a rope of tie. This along with the skill of dislocating his outer claws, also taught by the Teras Kasi Master zabrak, had given Vor the ability to escape in nearly any circumstance.

If you added to this the offensive skills that he was currently learning from Sarrik, you would find a combination that was, if not instantly lethal, totally impossible to contain. Sarrik had been quite pleased with his students progress to date and had made this known in more than verbal praise. Vor now found that he was the proud owner of his own complete set of Teras Kasi weapons. Granted these were few as a Teras Kasi truely needed no other weapon than his own good hands, but all the same it was quite an honor to have them given by ones master.

Vor finished with his scales and admired his shining appearance in the mirror. He was happy. It had been so long since he had been genuinely happy that he had almost passed the feeling off as poor digestion when it had first happened some weeks ago. Sarrik had been there shortly after Vor had come from the place of healing and had asked him if he would like to honor the memory of his old Master and continue his Teras Kasi training.

Vor had fallen to his knees and head bowed and touching the dirt of the street, had been totally speachless. Sarrik touched him on the shoulder, signaling him to rise and said, "Listen Vor, we both know it hasn't been an easy time for you. I would be more honored than you to be your Master and finish the teaching that your Master Gresh began. So, if you wish to honor his memory by learning all I can teach you of Teras Kasi, I will promise that your training will be second to none!"

Vor looked up and , still unable to speak, nodded his ascent. Sarrik was about to speak again when several Avians came around the corner chatting amongst themselves. Sarrik quickly dropped his hand from Vors shoulder and said, "Well, if that is settled, let's get you set up at my place. Not like I have all cycle to waste standing around out here in the sun." This was another example of the duel personality that Sarrik seemed to have.

Vor had noticed and was still seeing the two sides of his teacher. There was the Master Sarrik, teacher of Teras Kasi arts and friend, and then there was the public persona that he showed. The first was an honorable friend and teacher who would avoid violence unless forced to fight. The second was the loud and abrasive Sarrik that the outside world saw. This Sarrik would fight at the drop of a hat and while never outright hostile was rude nearly to the point of insult. And the more he cared for the person in question the more coarse and rough he acted.

Vor had come to appreciate these two sides of Sarrik. While he would not emulate him in this respect, he still found him as good a teacher if not the superior of Master Gresh.

As Vor placed the oil onto the one shelf in the spare cell he occupied in Master Sarriks compound, he thought of what might lay ahead for him. He had been active in the Creature Handling trade that he had mastered and was making quite a good number of credits in this way. Why just the other cycle he had sold a pair of dewbacks to a local caravan master. The caravan master had been quite impressed with the quality of the animals and had promised to send more business Vors way then he returned to the city.

Vor made his way to the training area which was the center point of Master Sarriks home. Today he would run the gauntlet and see if maybe he could actually make it through without hurting himself or the equipment. Vor, it turned out, was very hard on equipment. In the beginning of the training he had managed to get angry at three seperate machines and had lost control and smashed them to small pieces. Sarrik had been quite angry.

"How do you expect to be able to fight when you lose control to a machine! A real opponant would make use of your anger and beat you senseless after baiting you into a foolish attack." He had then gone on to insult and berate Vor, Vors heritage, parentage and general poor hygene untill Vor had snapped and attacked him hissing with rage. The attack was both foolish and short. When Vor woke up to the bucket of cold water that Master Sarrik poured onto his head, he had no remembrence of what Sarrik had done to immobilize him.

"Ok. First we start by removing that anger. As long as it lives inside you, you will never be able to master the meditations of a master of Teras Kasi." Looking back now, Vor realized that it had not taken all that long, working with his zabrak teacher, to master and then completely control his hidden rage. During the time it had seemed as if it were taking forever and that he would forever be a slave to his hate. But now with it completely under his control, he was sure it had been the work of a few cycles.

His thoughts were interupted by his entry to the open area of the traning grounds. Before him were set the machines that would simulate the gauntlet he must run. Seating himself on the ground in the position demanded for the beginning of the meditations. As he began the meditations, he was peripherally aware that Master Sarrik had entered and was waiting near the first of the many machines.

Having gone through all the forms and rites to strengthen his mind, body, spirit and concentration, he slowly made his way back to full awareness and moved to a position near Sarrik. As was proper he knelt and bowed to his master. Sarrik signaled him to rise and spoke. "Are you ready to run the gauntlet that will give the status of Adept my student?" Vor could sense the tension in his masters voice.

Vor said, "Being ready is Vor yes no? Yes!" "Then prepair yourself student for the test begins...NOW!" Saying the last work, Sarrik snapped on the array of machines and stood back to see the progress his student would make this day. Vor ran forward and vanished into the maze of machines.

As he had been tought, Vors mind automatically began to assess the strengths and weaknesses that the machines would have. While the machines would be programmed with static movements and attacks/defenses, they were also much faster than a human opponant would be. Also, although the machines were programmed to react to a strike as if it had actually done some damage, he would in fact be unable to disable or kill a machine.

All of this was through his thoughts in less than the time it took to reach the first of the staging areas. Here five combat droids awaited him. Vor did not slow his pace as he approached them, running full out at the first of the droids. Just as the droid was about to sidestep and use his own inertia for a check throw, he spun to the side and delivered a flying double kick to the droid that sent it spinning through the air and out of the staging area.

"One down." He thought as he snapped to his feet to face the four remaining droids that were closing on him. Slowly the droids circled watching for any opening to attack. This was another weakness in them, they would not attack until they saw an opening. As long as Vors defense was perfect, there would be no attack. This of course could not go on long as a stalemate was not what he was fighting for.

As they circled, Vor assessed each droid in turn. They were as he had expected, all of the same type. A general purpose, inexpensive combat testing type in the J series. Very advanced for thier type, but still limited to performing only what they had been programmed for. This gave Vor some small advantage. The droids would react in a set way to each attack.

On this pass of the circling droids, Vor reached out, lightning quick and grabbed the arm of the droid to his right. The right arm of the droid came down on an open hand strike at the wrist of the restraining hand. Vor smashed it away with his left arm. Then executing a series of strikes that he had been working on in his spare time, released his right handed grip, swiveled to his right slightly, regrabbed the droids arm with his left hand and drove his right, claws extended into the area where an armpit should be.

The effects of this new and untried move were immediate and quite impressive. As Vor had hoped, the driods arm was sheared off completely in a shower of sparks. This, unfortunately, was the last thing that Vor had time to loose his attention to. The other three droids, seeing him focused on thier companion, had closed in for the attack. As the droids arm was coming off, the other droids made good Vors lack of attention. One droid to each arm they restrained him as the third moved to an attack position directly in front of him.

The strength of the grip on his arms forced him to lose his grip on the droid arm he had hoped to use as a weapon. Hissing in anger, Vor cursed his own total immersion in his new attack and lack of attention to his surroundings. This was not the first time he had let his lack of attention get him into trouble. And this time the droids were as strong as he was. No advantage to be had there, and at this time they not only had all of the available leverage, he was completely at thier mercy. As if a droid had any such concept.

As the two droids holding his arms exerted thier full strength, pulling his arms waide, the third drove in with a forward drop kick. The blow connected fully and knocked the breath from the trapped trandoshan. The droids holding his arms never moved at all which also translated a goodly portion of the strike damage to his shoulders. This was more than Vor could tolerate. He knew it was his own lack of thought that had allowed this to occur, and his anger flared and red flashed into his yellow eyes.

With an effort that nearly tore his own arms out of thier sockets, Vor threw himself forwards, then as he felt the droids restraint change, he lunged backwards. As he changed the momentum of his movement, he felt the droids begin to lose control and wrenched his arms together. The two restraining droids were thrown together with such force, that when Vor felt thier grips relax and backflipped away to get distance from the last of the droids, he could not tell where one droid ended and the other began.

The heap of junk that had been two fully functional combat droids but a moment before, fell to the ground in a sparking, jangling mass. Vor assumed a defensive stance and prepared to meet the last of the droids, already nearly within reach for an attack.

The anger still showing red in his eyes, Vor had had enough of these machines. As the droid threw a left hand open hand chop towards the left side of his neck, Vor ducked, grabbed the arm in his own right hand and drove an open palm strike with his left hand to the elbow joint, smashing the servos in that area. The droid retreated, right arm dangling from the smashed elbow joint, but Vor was not finished with it yet. As the droid retreated, it tripped over the remains of one of its fallen comrades and went down in a jumble.

Vor was on the droid before it could extricate itself from its downed fellows wires and gears. He picked the droid up by the neck and the left leg and raised it up over his head. With all the strength he could muster, Vor brought the droid down on his rapidly rising right knee. Such was the leverage and strength in the enraged trandoshans grip, the droid was torn completely in half when it struck.

Contemptiously, Vor hurled the remains from himself to fall against the far wall of the staging area. Slowly, slowly, Vor began to calm himself. He knew that while his anger had been a benefit against this test, he would not have needed it had he been better prepaired for this match and had he stayed in control from the outset. The remaining tests would require his complete concentration and control to master. As the red left his eyes and his anger subsided, Vor began to move forward for the next of the tests. He would not fail again!


As he approached the next challenge area, Vor became aware that he was slowly losing his ability to see. Something in the air was causing his eyes to sting terribly. At first it was just a matter of blinking more than usual, but now had become such an irritant that he had been forced to close his inner eyelids. With the nictitating membranes closed over his eyes, his normally superior eyesight was reduced to that of the average human. This was most disturbing.

Vor nearly tripped over the small lighted beacon that showed he was in place for the next of the challenges before he was aware of it. The visibility had been reduced to no more than a few inchs from his face and he had only found the beacon from his inate sense of direction. Within seconds, the entire area was thrown into complete darkness. Normally this would not be a problem for the trandoshan, but with his inner eyelids closed, his night sight was poor to non existant.

As he had been taught, Vor closed his outer eyelids and slowly, slowly began the process of centering his thoughts around his ability to sense heat patterns in the surrounding environment. This had been taught to him by Master Gresh as a last resort defensive ploy if he had been partially or completely blinded. Unfortunately the process was both time consuming and disorienting.

He was only partially through the process when he felt a metalic tenticle wrap suddenly around his left leg and begin to haul him towards what he could only assume was a very nasty surprise. Ignoring the movemen and closing his mind to all other thoughts, Vor continued the heat sight opening ritual. He began to be able to make out dim and unformed masses near him that stood out in reds and yellows. The tenticle around his leg was a black mass of cold metal trailing off into the distance.

Though the process was difficult, once done, the full force of Vors concentration was focused onto the sensing of his surroundings. The world was quite a different place in this sense, full of darkness and flaring heat. The colors were wonderous and terrible all at the same time. It would be more moments yet before Vor was able to make heads or tails of what he was seeing. Even for one trained in its use, the heat sight confused the brain and confounded the intellect.

Reaching out, Vor tried to smash his left mid claw through the metal tenticle to stop his forward progress. All that he managed was to chip his claw, make a small dent in the metal and make a rather large divot in the ground. So much for that tactic. The metal was too tough for his claws to shear off. Maybe a test of strength would show better results.

As he was dragged near a silent machine, Vor braced his right leg against the base, grabbed the restraining tenticle in both his hands and pulled back with all his might. Blood showed as he bit through his lip from the strain. The machine that had him was incredibly strong. Throwing his entire might into the pull, a roar of frustration escaped his throat as he was pulled away from the bracing machine and lost all leverage.

Ahead he could make out the just above room temperature outline of the machine the tenticle had deployed from. With his limited heat sight all he could tell for certain was that it seemed to be mainly composed of grinders and great sharp stationary blades, and the tenticle rode a safe trail right down the center of the engine of destruction.

It was obvious that Vors hide would not slow those huge grinders down for even a moment. If he were pulled inside, the most he could hope for was to create a somewhat pleasing pattern of doshan blood as he was dismembered. What was he missing? There had to be some simple thing that had eluded him this whole time, but what?!? As he looked around he saw it. The answer to his need.

There on the left side of the gaping maw that awaited him was a darker than room temperature rectangle with a fiercly glowing hot point the size and shape of a lighted switch. Vor instantly saw that if he did not try for the switch now, he would not have enough slack in the metal restraint to reach it in time.

He leaped up and nearly went down again as the unfamilier weight of the tenticle slowed his reaction time. He moved with all the speed he dared towards the switch only to find that he was already some claw lengths too short to reach it. This was more than he could stomach. Hissing, he reached out with both hands and grasped the edge of the machine and pulled. The strain on his leg was incredible and the pain reached a level so severe he thought he would lose consciousness. He knew that should this happen, he was dead.

Again reaching into himself, Vor found and turned a switch in his own psyche, and the pain was gone. With that he redoubled his efforts to reach the switch. He could feel the pressure on his leg and heard the pop and snap of bones and tissue that was strained far beyond its limits to endure. Reaching deep deep down, Vor pulled one last time and lunged forward, smashing the switch and stopping the terrible pull on his tortured limb.

The sudden release of the restraint, threw Vor to the ground on his face, panting from the effort he had just put forth. He was still unable to feel anything in his left leg and thought this was probably for the best till he was done with the trials. As he lay, face down, Vor tried to release the heat sight for a more conventional vision and found that he did not have the strength to change back. he would be forced to see in the colors of the world of temperature till he gained some strength back.

Slowly he got to his feet. This effort was hampered somewhat by the lack of any sensation in his left leg from the hip down. Vor had trained for this also. Using the leg as if nothing were wrong with it, he moved at a good pace towards the area where he knew that the third and final challenge awaited. He had no time to sit and rest and he was unsure of his ability to face the last of the challenges with limited mobility and only his heat sight to lead him, but he would fail with dignity before he would pass in shame! Matching thought to deed, he approached the third beacon and awaited the start of the challenge.
Vor was beginning to think that the third challenge may never start. He had used his generally good snece of direction to move towards the third beacon, but had been unable to locate it. At least he didn't think he had. The beacon was a soft blue light that would not register to his heat sight at all due to being a zero heat emission source. Hissing in frustration, Vor made his way around the entire area, shuffling his feet in the hopes if literally stumbling across the beacon.

He was on the brink of getting to his knees and crawling while feeling for the beacon when the dead weight of his left foot hit a snag. The beacon! Having found the starting point, Vor wondered how many times he had shuffled past this exact space. He knew that the challange started as soon as his life signs were detected by the beacon. As he settled into a defensive posture, he did his best to reduce the pain coming from his heat sight.

This combat area must be open to the direct glare of Corellias sun. Every surface seemed to scream yellows and dull oranges into Vors brain as he searched for any attack. The overload of heat signatures was starting to give him a serious problem. While he had trained his mind to accept the input and to be able to interpret this data, he had always trained at night and had never had to deal with such a huge number of images pouring into his head.

Closing his eyes was no relief as his heat sight was not dependant on his eyes for its use. As he attempted to focus on a spot with the minimum of heat coming from it, he sprang to attention as a new heat signature appeared coming form where he had been looking. The signature was somehow strangely familier, and yet also totally foreign.

The attacker was obviously a Doshan from the heat distribution, general size and form. Or at least an approximation of a Doshan that was machine created. Vor was fairly certain this was not a hologram due to the clearly defined heat patterns it left as it moved towards him slowly. Tracking the attacker would be difficult at the very least due to the variety of temperatures in the surrounding environment. Knowing this, Vor locked the complete form of his attacker in his mind and readied himself for what was sure to be a very very hard fight.

Before the attacker was withing arms reach, Vor took the initiative and leaped through the air for a flying spin kick to the head. Two upraised arms in a forward block stopped his momentum dead. As he fell to the ground, Vor realized that this was a combat droid in the image of a doshan and programmed with a good approximation of his own skills. He attempted to flip back to his feet and stumbled to the left as his dead leg refused to hold his weight.

He may have had some small advantage were he not half crippled and nearly blinded, as all droids even the most advanced, had slower reaction times than living beings. But with his left leg nearly useless and only his heat sight, this would be the fight of his lifetime, possibly his last. Granted the machines were never supposed to actually kill you, but machines were machines and sometimes things just happened.

All of these thoughts flashed strough Vors head in the tiny fraction of time it took for the droid to attack. Vor had been unable to restore his balance before the attack struck home. The droid had obviously analysed the weaknesses of it's opponant as it's first attack was a sweep kick to the right leg that tore the leg out from under him and slammed him onto his back in the dust. As the clawed foot of the droid decended in a skull crushing stomp, Vor managed to roll to his right in time to recieve only a small scratch to the left side of his face from the attack.

Rolling, then executing a perfect side flip to fighting stance, Vor was as ready as he would ever be to face off against the droid. Gone! He had lost the heat signature during the movement to regain his feet. Quickly he pivoted scanning the surrounding air for a signature or a heat trail. As he turned, again the droid struck, this time from behind. The droid looped its arms under Vors and reached around to place its hands at the back of his head. This was called a full grapple and would surely break the neck of an unprepaired opponant.

Now was the time to see if the droid had been programmed with a doshans weaknesses as well as his own strengths. Vor bent forward, stepped back and then, droid still attached, performed a forward rolling leap that ended with the droid crushed between his body and the very hard ground. At impact, Vor reached back with both hands and slammed his open palms against the earslots of the droid. This would have exploded a doshans ear canals and was no less effective on the droid. The alloy like grip slackened just the tiniest amount and Vor exerted his strength to break free of the grapple.

Gaining his feet, Vor noticed that the droid must have been programmed to approximate injuries sustained in the combat. There were heat trails streaming from the earslots of his opponant and it was moving in a slugish manner as it regained its feet. Now was the time to end this match. As Vor rushed in, the droid executed the correct stop block to his initial foot sweep and also managed to somehow block the right hand claw strike to its abdomen. It failed however to block the left handed side slash to its throat.

As the droid fell to the ground with its hydrolic life fluids bubbling from the huge gash in its neck, Vor slumped to the ground exhausted. He still had things to do he reminded himself and quickly began the meditative process needed to release his heat sight. While he was doing this he noted that he was no longer alone. But as the other presence did not attack him immediately, he went on with his meditations. As he came out of his trance, he opened his eyes and his breath was taken away by the colors and richness of vision he always experienced after releasing his heat sight.

Slowly slowly he removed the pain block from his mind and began to check the extent of the damage to his left leg. The pain was not sharp and immediate signaling that there were no breaks or dislocations. Instead it was the deep steady throb of overworked muscles. No damage that he could percieve. Then, and only then, did Vor acknowledge the other presence. He looked up and nodded to Master Sarrik to signify that his meditaions were complete. Sarrik, Vor noticed did not seem all too happy, but then Sarrik never really seemed to show outward happiness. Vor had found it was usually best to wait and see how his words seemed.

"Well my student." Sarriks sad as he stood. "As always you excel at the hardest of the challenges while failing the simplest utterly." As he turned to leave the disappointment was quite obvious on his countenance. "Again and again I tell you to stick to the basics and in every case you attempt some damn fool stunt that nearly gets you killed." Vor was entirely taken aback by Sarriks statements and his demeanor. "Maybe when you are ready, you will decide that your teacher knows what the hell he is talking about and decide to listen for a change. Until then I suggest you stick to fighting jawas because any real opponant would have killed and skinned you!"

This said Sarrik moved away towards the living areas of the compound. Vor was left to stew in his pain, both physical and in his heart. Again he had disappointed his master and he felt the shame of it like a great weight apon his neck. Head bowed from the weight of failure, Vor retreated to his sparse cell to meditate and attempt to purge the need to use new ideas and styles from his mind. Next time, he vowed, he would show his master his true worth!
At the same time that Sarrik was instructing Vor in the ways of the Teras Kasi, he was also secretly studying the Trandoshan language and what little he could find on thier culture. While his grasp of, as they called it, Doshan was progressing apace, his study of his students people was not following suit. Vor seemed to be nearly the antithisis of each and every cultural taboo that he read about for the secretive race.

For one thing Vor seemed to shun the religion of his people with a passion bordering on obsession. The mere mention of religion brought a reaction that can only be called absolute rage to the fore and would leave Vor silent for weeks at a time. Sarrik was not sure as yet why this was, and had decided to shelve tha matter until he had a complete graps on the language and could question Vor in his own language.

It was during this study that he read of the Krankara' Arunii. While this was listed in his data as a ritual that each Doshan was required to attempt, that was the extent of the information. No specifics could be found. While he was expending some grudgingly given credits for further information on Doshan culture, he was approached by a Rodian that he knew to be a heavy collector of Lost and rare technology. Teelo Arwin was about as slimy a figure as could be found anywhere but his pay was top notch.

"ahhhh friend Sarrik, a word with you if I may." Sarrik tucked the data disk he had just purchased at quite some cost into his jacket pocket and frowned as he looked at the rodian. "What do you want Teelo?" he said as he crossed his arms across his chest. The rodian continued as if this were the most affable greeting he had recieved today, which was more than likely true. "Ahhh I have a job that needs an expert. A being of exceptional courage and candor. A true archetype of the adventurer if you will." He smiled at Sarrik showing several teeth made from rare gems.

"I said, What do you want Teelo. That was not an invitation for your poor attempt at flattery. If you have a deal for me spit it out otherwise I suggest you move along as I am beginning to dislike the smell you leave in the air." Said the menacing looking zabrak. This seemed to have the hoped for result on the rodian. "Ahh. Ah yes. Well..yes I do in deed have a job that needs doing. I have just procured some information that leads me to believe that there may be a cache of rare Tech ao a planet just waiting for the right being to recover it. If we could talk in a less public place I would be most grateful." Teelo said looking hopefully at Sarrik.
The zabrak actually laughed at that. "Teelo, the last thing I want to do is keep your company a second longer than it takes to make this deal. Especially into an enclosed area." As he finished Sarrik leaned casually against the wall of the building he had just exited. "Ahhh. Well you see....it will be a most delicate mission." whispered the rodian. "You mean dangerous." Sarrik fired back at him. "Ahh danger..yes there may be a small amount of that involved if you were discovered. But I assure you you will fild the pay more than adequate." Teelo grinned sheepishly.

"Get to the mission details or I will start charging you by the monment for wasting my time and fouling the air with your stench!" Sarrik came off the wall suddenly and loomed over the rodian awating a reply. Teelo had nearly run for his life when Sarrik had bounded off the wall. "Yes the details. If you are interested, here is a data disk with all the mission information on it. Look it over and you can reach me through the usual channels to let me know if you will do it or not. I can of course trust to your descretion should you not choose to do it of course."

Sarrik looked at the rodian in mock anger, "Why you slimy little gundark! You have the nerve to first assume that I would lower myself to the level of knowing what your "usual channels" are and then you insult my integrity?!?!?! Leave now or die where you stand, you piece of filth!" With that he flipped the mission data into his pocket along with the Doshan data. Teelo, his fear now far more urgent than his desire to get the rare Tech., ran for his life squeeling miserably as he went. Sarrik, chuckling to himself walked to his parked swoop bike and with a last laugh at the rodians expense, rode for home.

As he approached the compound, Sarrik could make out a speeder at his home. This indicated visiters, possibly unwelcome ones. If they had disturbed Vor at his meditations, and he had not met them as yet, they may very well be in for a nasty surprise. Sarrik gunned the throttle and sped towards the compound, frowning at the thought of what he may find when he got there.

Entering the foyer, he could make out voices from the courtyard and was put at ease when he recognized the voice of Aeric. Aeric was a fellow Avian and was an expert armorer. He had provided Sarrik with some, shall we say, specialty pieces in the past that had been the difference between mission accomplished and death.

He instantly took in the entire courtyard as he entered. The area was scattered with gardens and training machines. He spotted Vor and Aeric there near the small waterfall. This was Vors favorite spot for meditation, and from experience, Sarrik knew that if Aeric had come in before Vor had finished, he had been forced to wait.

While Sarrik was not usually so, solicitous, he made his way to the cooking space and prepaird two heavily leaded glasses of Doshan fire tea which he placed on a small tray. To this tray he added a tall glass of loran fruit juice and a bowl of small yellow nanga berries. Thus encumbered, he made his way back to the courtyard.

Vor and Aeric had moved to one of the many small platforms that were placed here and there throughout the courtyard. They could be used for meditation, reading (each had a small built in holo projector) or as now, for a place to sit and relax with a friend or two. Even carrying the tray. Sarrik had approached with his natural stealth.

As he reached around to set the tray down, Aeric nearly jumped out of his skin. Vor of course had seen the approach of his master and hissed laughingly as Aeric reacted in the expected manner. Aeric and he had been discussing the specially modified armor that Vor was hoping to be able to purchase. His experience on Tattooine had shown him that Aerics armors were worth the cost and definately a boon to have.

Seeing what his master had brought, he immediately handed Aeric one of the heavy Doshan fire tea glasses and took the other for himself. While he hardly ever partook of this drink from his homeworld anymore, he had found that it was polite to drink when a guest had a drink. Aeric had gone back to his figuring on a datapad as soon as the surprise from Sarriks entry had left him and had not looked up till he caught the scent of the fire tea.

"What is this? Trying to get me drunk will not improve my design ability, nor will it help you on the price for this monster that you want made." said Aeric chuckling as he reached for the glass of tea. He took a very very small sip. As he swallowed, his face turned redder than usual and he began to sweat visibly. "Ahhhh. Sweet nector. You know I am quite sure that this must be toxic to the human system, hahahahahaha." Vor hissed in the correct manner at the humans joke and took a large swallow of his drink.

Sarrik for his part was as sitting back, drinking his loran juice and looking over a datapad readout. He had produced the mission disk from his jacket pocket and had promptly forgotten the others at the table as he scanned the general outline of what Teelo wanted and where it was likely to be found. He was not happy with what he read.

"Are you sure you don't want more armor thickness in the groin area Vor?" Aeric was saying still working furiously at the datapad. Vor thought it somewhat impolite that the human would sometimes not look at the person he was speaking to as he became intensely buried in the work at hand. "Not need is more area being. Vor race not same human having protective needs groin." External genitals! Again Vor laughed to himself. Humans always assumed that all the races were the same as themselves.

"Well, ok Vor. If the specs you gave me are what you really need, I think I can build this. It will take me some time and the cost may be a little bigger than even my best regualr armor, but it will be as close as possible to what you wanted." Aeric put the datapad into a pocket and raised his glass. "To a fruitful future partnership. I make the armor and you test it and put it to good use." Saying this, Aeric took a rather large drink of the tea.

It was clear as Vor excorted him to his speeder, that Aeric was more than just a little bit drunk and Vor was glad that he knew the auto pilot sequence for this speeder. Helping Aeric into the machine, Vor reached in and punched the instructions into the computer and watched as it sped off towards Aerics home/workshop. He was thinking that it might be a good idea to ask one of the Avian doctors if fire tea was in fact toxic to humans as he reentered the courtyard.

His train of thought was interrupted as Sarrik motioned him back to the platform. As he seated himself, Sarrik removed the data disk from the datapad and placed it in the holoviewer. The image came from the machine as a blob of unreadable light. Sarrik swore and hammered at the controls with his fist for a moment. With a final kick to the table, the blob of light became a sharp, crisp image. Vor thought this was, as he was finding many things these days, very funny.

Vor had noticed that there seemed to be two schools of thought regarding technology. The first was that the use of endearing terms and the show of affection for a machine would promote correct functionality. Sarrik belonged to the opposing school of thought. This group seemed to believe that a machine could be threatened into correct function by physical and verbal abuse. Vor had been at first surprised and then amused to see that both of these schools of thought seemed equally viable when it came to actually getting any sort of results.

As the image became clear, Vor could see that it was mission data of some sort. As he begane to study the general outline, Sarrik spoke. "So, now that your toy purchasing is out of the way, how about we get to work and make some money?" Sarrik leaned back in his chair and popped a handful of the nanga berries into his mouth. Vor knew better than to think he would speak while he was eating. As Sarriks swallowed, he began again.

"The person involved is not to be trusted and the data is most likely lacking detail in the most vital area. The assumption that there will be fairly little danger. The slimy little rodian that wants me to take this mission would not be in the slightest put out if I were killed while attempting it. So. That leaves us with the final question. Do we take it or not. The pay is actually more than what I expected from the source."

Sarrik again took a handfull of the berries and made himself comfortable. Vor began to study the mission data more closely. "Why master Vor taking is, mission being?" he said. It was fairly clear that the mission was intended for Sarrik and Sarrik alone. The zabrak nodded as if he had expected this question.

"Because I don't trust that little piece of nuna pudu. Almost noone outside Avian knows I have taken you as a student. The potential employer has always in the past made a showing of minimizing the danger. The fact that there is little or no mention of the dangers on this mission, I can only assume that they are many and varied. I don't like being tricked, but would like being dead even less."

Sarrik looked at Vor and continued. "You will be my secret weapon so to speak. Your training is coming along well, and..."Sarrik hesitated here. This was something Vor had never seen before. His master was always forthright and spoke his mind with little or no regard for how it effected others. "The truth is, I can use your help on this one. There I said it. If you ever repeat it I will call you a slimy lier." Sarriks face seemed to Vor to look as if a weight had been lifted rather than the anger that the statement implied.

Vor looked again at the holo od the data. "Vor agreeing master with going Vor being. Question having is. What finding master being employer is Geonosis going for?" And why he thought to himself, would someone want anything from that taboo planet?
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 20
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:09 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:04 pm
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Location: Southern Ca
The trip to Geonosis had been as uneventful as any trip aboard Angus MacGregors ship could be. It seemed that Angus was unable to leave a system without in some way making life a little difficult for some Imperial or the other. The Empire had placed a small inspection group just inside the sphere of space that Tattooine occupied on the off chance that they might come across a rebel force in the area.

As soon as the Imperial's had contacted Angus and ordered him to stand-to for inspection, he had gunned the ship to full sublight speed. With six Tie fighters just entering weapons range he had made the jump to light speed while releasing several magnetic mines at the same time. "That will give them something to think about!" he had said as the star field in the view ports contracted to streaks of passing light.

The trip through hyperspace was as usual a time of making ready for Vor. He inspected and cleaned his armor and for the second time, began to clean and oil his scales. Sarrik on the otherhand was a whirlwind of activity. No matter how many times an item was checked off the list, Sarrik still insisted that there was "some damn thing that I forgot!". Vor was sure that the unceasing activity would drive the zabrak over the edge into one of his rare fits of uncontrolable swearing and hitting unoffending items of furnature.

Angus entered the living area and seeing Vor said, "We should be dropping out of light speed fairly soon. I left myself plenty of room incase that asteroid field has expanded since the survey I bought was done. You never can tell how old those things are and I do not want to say hello to any fast moving rocks!" As he finished, Sarrik entered muttering to himself as he opened crate after crate to again check the contents against the mental list he had running in his head.

Angus walked over to him and, looking over his shoulder said, "Hmmm looks as if there is a little space over there in the left corner. You sure you didn't forget something?" Sarrik turned and gave him a look that could have melted through hull metal. Angus shrugged his shoulders and as he turned back towards the cockpit, winked and grinned at Vor. He exited the living area whistling the tune Vor had heard refered to as The Lazy Taun-Taun. Sarrik was not amused.

Vor had found that it was usually best to leave Sarrik to himself when he was in this sort of mood. He had also found that his partner seemed to delight in exaserbating the mood by making passing comments and then retreating before Sarrik could retaliate verbally or otherwise. This whole process seemed somewhat odd to the Doshan and he chalked it up to some social interaction he would never understand.

Sarrik had been very grudging in his acceptance that they would need to travel to Geonosis in Angus' ship instead of Sarriks own Dark Umbra. But Vor and Angus had finally shown him the facts that leaving his ship unprotected was just not feasible. If they had to leave the planet in a hurry and something had happedn to the Umbra while grounded, they would be in deep pudu to be sure.

This way, Angus would ground, drop the pair off with thier equipment and a speeder and be on his way to finish a run to the fringe system of Torr'na. If his friends needed him, they would be able to reach him quickly and should be able to hold out for the short time it would take Angus to return for them. To this end, Angus had finally managed to extract a promise from Sarrik that they would actually USE the two combat droids that they had purchased from Kharlaq Mithraa, a relatively new member of Avian who seemed very eager to please and had some rather exciting new ideas in droid design.

Even after he had finally agreed to use the droids, Sarrik had been set on using them if they were purchased from the already established and well known, Avian Advanced Droid Systems. He had even gone so far as to get a few of thier members in on a holo conference. After talking for some time, Rak Hagga had jumped up and said. "Eureka!" And had run out of range of the holo pickup. The other members had finally come to the conclusion that they would be able to provide what Sarrik was asking for, if he wanted to wait several weeks for delivery.

Unfortunately they were in the process of filling a huge number of orders that had come in from another group that was in the midst of a small scale corperate war and was in desperate need of good combat droids. So it had fallen to the relitively unknown Kharlaq to make the droids. "Hmm, I am sure I can provide you with the type you want in the next few hours if needs be, as I have them in back stock. But! If you would be willing to wait about two cycles, I can provide you with top notch droids that meet and excede your specifications."

Angus had pointed out that it was get the droids from Kharlaq or delay the trip to Geonosis by weeks. Sarrik had sworn a blue streak and demolished two tables a chair and a goodly portion of a wall before he had settled down and agreed to the purchase. When they had finally picked the droids up, Sarrik was forced to give his suprised compliments to Kharlaq on the droids design and function. They were in fact top quality and some of the best designs he had seen.

Angus' voice came from the cockpit, "We are entering sublight, better finish loading your pudu into the speeder for landing. I am not sitting there on the ground as a stationary target for longer than I have to." Sarrik sent a reply winging its way towards the cockpit that Vor would not repeat. It alluded to Angus having a predilliction for mating with diseased womprats. The only reply from the command area was a chuckle.


Vor placed the final crate into the speeders storage space and got to his position in the passenger seat just as the Rain settled down and the cargo doors began to open. Sarrik gunned the speeder down the only partially lowered ramp and raced away from the ship. Vor turned and saw the Rain already lifting. Her captains voice came to them over the com. "Good hunting my friends. And try to stay alive will you? It's so difficult to train new partners. Hahahahahahaha."

Sarrik said nothing but gave the speeder full throttle towards some destination that only he knew. Vor sat back and enjoyed the sensation of the hot wind sliding past him in the open speeder. Master Gresh had given him a fair schooling in galactic history and if what he had learned was true, this planet held untold richs for those brave enough to find them. It also held danger beyond anyones wildest imagination. Vor was ready for both.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 21
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:12 pm 
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The history of this wasteland of a planet had been written long ago in a single great event. According to his teacher, a great jedi battle had been faught here against a seperatist army that threatened the galaxy. Vor hissed at this. As if the Empire were not danger enough. It was told that after the battle, the geonosians had been devistated and thier population reduced to only a few hundred thousand remaining warriors.

Master Gresh had told Vor of how after the battle, the army of clone troopers had invaded the hive like dwellings of the geonosians and had destroyed more than half of thier breeders before being driven back by escalating resistance. Faced with the death of a goodly number of thier own troops they had pulled back and left the planet. Vor wished he knew what a jedi was, they seemed to have been very powerful at one time and greatly respected. But even Master Gresh had not had that information, or had withheld it for reasons of his own.

Vor had also been told that this attack on non warrior geonosians had taken place only after the jedi leaders of the army had been called away and the real leaders of the army, those in league with the still hidden emperor, had ordered the total destruction of the geonosians. It was said that the geonosians now feared all offworlders and would attack them on sight, But it was also told, as a sort of legend, about the lost divisions of clone troopers that had been left behind. Unable to reach or signal the retreating army, they had been reduced to no better than scavanging animals.

It was said that some survived to this day. Vor of course would have none of that. Legends and old myths were not the things that brought caution to the fore. The savage geonosians however were quite a different story. Vor was sure that he and Sarrik could handle a few half mad first generation clones, what bothered him was the fact that history said that the geonosians had used millions of troops that could fly.

He was not sure he wished to face a flying enemy. How could one grapple with such an enemy? If one thought about it, the enemy could stay aloft and bombard you while never coming within attack range. This thought was most disturbing to the Trandoshan and he began to scan the sky thouroughly as they sped along to Sarrik only knew where.

Sarrik noting the change in Vors attention said, "What? Something got you spooked already?" He chuckled in an off handed way. "Nothing to fear out here except for the occasional storm front." Seeing that Vor was not eased by the statement, Sarrik went back to his driving and waved dismissively at his student.

They were moving at about three quarters of the maximum speed for the speeder when the explosion occured. Vor had been busy scanning the sky and had not seen the bubble like blast of sound that hit thier craft. Sarrik had just time enough to utter a single vulgar word before the speeder veered hard to the left and began to pitch over. Vor knowing that to be caught under the speeder was sure death, hit the release on the force belt and leaped from the stricken speeder.

He was rolling and tumbling for quite some time before a large stone projection stopped his progress cold. Vor was instantly on his feet looking to see what had become of Sarrik and the speeder. Sarrik it seemed had decided that he could ground the speeder without too much additional damage as he was still fighting the controls in the drivers seat.

As Vor watched, the zabarak somehow managed to right the mortally damaged speeder and cut the repulsor field. The craft immediately slammed to the ground and screamed to a halt amidst the sounds of tortured metal and crushing rocks. As the speeder came to a stop, Sarrik bounded out of the useless craft and found cover a short distance away.

Before the craft had ground to a halt, Vor was moving, trying to get to a better position so that he could support Sarrik if they were forced to fight immediately. He moved carefully but quickely from rock to rock as he followed the progress of the speeder. By the time Sarrik had leaped from the wreckage and found cover, Vor was a scant four meters from him and covering his flank.

From the look of the crash, most of thier equipment had survived the attack and the landing. The blast that had stranded them was a very precise hit to the controls section. The blast had caused only little if any collateral damage which gave Vor some hope that they may survive this planet yet. Hissing out a pre arranged signal, he approached Sarriks hiding place and joined his master.

Sarrik silently pointed towards a promonatory many meters distant. Looking carefully, Vor could make out the movement of many many creatures at the top of the rock mesa. As he watched, his worst fear was realized. The creatures dropped from the height and seemed to glide softly to the bottom. Flyers! He looked back to Sarrik who only nodded and started towards the wrecked speeder.

They had just recovered the most critical pieces of thier gear when Sarrik motioned for Vor to follow him back to cover. Vor immediately obeyed and started towards the hiding place they had selected. As he reached it, he saw Sarrik fiddling with the two crates that thier combat droids were packed in. He was just about to leave his cover and join Sarrik, when the zabrak came running and sliding towards him. As he squatted down beside his trandoshan student he spoke.

"Well, if I was correct in what I think I just did, this may be a very interesting fight." He looked at Vor grinning. Vor for his part was unsure how Sarrik could find any humor in a fight that may well cost them thier lives. He still could not understand the human and zabrak love for excitement. He shrugged internally and went back to his scanning fo the sky for the approaching enemy.

They did not keep him waiting long. Sarrik touched his arm and pointed towards the South. Just topping the rise were several creatures that Vor assumed were goenosians. They were between one and two meters in height, had what appeared to be four appendages and carried weapons in the lower set or what Vor thought of as arms. The were also very sell suited to thier environment. They seemed ot have a hard exoskeleton that would work like armor and were a deep bronwing red that matched the general colors of the desert like planet.

As Vor was going over all this in his head, he felt a blast of air on his back. Slowly and carefully looking to find the source, he saw four more of the creatures, only these were flying to meet the others already at the crash site. Vor saw that they had two pairs of wings and a hard carapace that covered the wings when not in flight. The creatures were obviously intelligent as they also carried weapons and wore what could only be described as equipment belts about thier abdomens.

Sarrik was taking this all in as well, and when he signaled Vor it was to tell him that they were going to seperate. Sarrik signaled that he would work his way around to the opposite side of the wreck and that Vor was to stay put. The trandoshan was not sure that splitting up was such a good idea, but would not argue with his master. As Sarrik made his way from this cover to the next, the geonosians were milling about the crash evidently looking for bodies.

It did not take them long to find that there were no victims left in the wreckage. They spoke together in thier strange clicking language and all but four of them flew off in the direction that the speeder had come from. If they were any good at tracking, they would soon enough find Vor. He had made no attempt after his tumultuous exit from the speeder to hide his trail.

Vor turned his attention back to the remaining creatures. They were milling around poking through the crates and ditritus at the crash site. One of them opened the first of the droid cases and called to the others in a very animated manner. As the other three came over, the first opened the second of the droid cases.

As the four of them gathered about the two cases, Vor heard a small beep from a spot roughtly opposite them from his spot. Apparently the gosnosians had heard it too. They instantly came to attack positions, weapons at the ready facing the spot where the sound had come from. That, was thier first mistake. They had no more than started to take a step towards the area of the noise when the two combat droids exploded out of the cases firing as they stood.

Two of the creatures were down immediately, as the droids slammed bolt after bolt into thier chitinous armor. One of the remaining two managed to fire an ill aimed weapon. Vor saw the strange sphere shaped blast blow a large boulder to dust when it hit. Before he had time to look back the droids had already killed the remaining two creatures and were in defensive mode scanning the area for further targets.

Sarrik rose up and placed the droid remote into his jacket. As Vor approached, Sarrik bent down to examine one of the fallen creatures. "What do you think Vor? Geonosians?" he said as he pulled the carapace back to reveal the wings. Vor nodded and bent down to lift one of the strange weapons. He looked it over carefully and after locating the firing mechanism, fired the weapon at a close by boulder. "Sonic weapon, now put it down and stop all that noise. You want to call the entire population down on our heads?" said Sarrik with a frown as he rose.

Vor placed the small weapon into his pack for future study. As he was moving towards the speeder to begin collecting the less important of their gear, he was hit and sent spinning to slam into the ground. The strike had hit hard on the upper left shoulder and had had sufficient force to drive the heavy trandoshan to the ground. As Vor sprung to his feet in a defense stance, he had just time to see that there were three geonosians holding weapons pointed at Sarrik before the mechanical voice of the translator screached out. "Surrender now or this one dies!"

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 22
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:16 pm 
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Before the translating machine had time to more than finish, four of the geonosians were down with holes drilled as if from a precise drilling machine through thier chests. The droids turned and fired with perfect accuracy, making kill after kill. Vor for his part had advanced and attacked the nearest geonosian before the droids had finished thier first volley of fire. He noticed that the creature was pointing a device at the droids and smashing a button repeatedly.

With no time to ponder what this action meant, Vor slammed his right claw into the chest of the geonosian. To his surprise, his claw penetrated and went completely through the being stopping only when the chest of the writhing creature was against his shoulder, with his arm up to the elbow protruding from its back. He flung his arm to the side slinging the shattered corpse from him to crunch to a halt against a rock.

Looking for his next target, Vor saw that Sarrik had dispatched three of the fragile beings already and was beginning to clear a space around himself. Deciding that subtlety would be a waste in this battle, Vor began swinging hammer blows left and right. As he moved towards his master, he left a wake of smashed and wriggling death. When he finally reached Sarrik he was nearly covered with the foul ichor that the beings used for organs.

The droids were dropping the creatures with the precise aim and speed that very few organics could match. It was clear to Vor at this time that the battle was thiers and that all that remained was slaughter. This was the part that he hated. Not killing for a purpose, but slaughter because the enemy would not surrender even when outmatched.

As the killing continued, one of the geonosians managed to get a weapon in hand and retreat to a distance that allowed it a good field of fire. The first that Vor knew of this was when the droid to his left was hit dead center by the sonic blast and exploded, showering the combat area with fragments of itself.

The remaining droid immediately turned and slammed four blaster shots into the creature, blowing it into a fine mist that wafted down to the windswept rock. Vor turned and swept two of the creatures together. The two exploded in a shower of oozing twitching frgements. When he turned to face the next opponant, he found that the battle was over. Not one of the geonosians had even attempted to escape and all now lay dead.

Vor immediately began checking the bodies of the creatures that the droids had blasted to be sure there were no surprises when they began to take stock and move on. He was unsure how to be certain if the creatures were truely dead or not by casual observation, so he smashed the head of each one with his foot. As he finished this grizzley proceedure he saw that Sarrik was staring at him. "I told you not to fire that damned weapon!" he said in a low even voice, then turned to see what could be salvaged from the speeder.

As Vor was making his way towards the speeder, he picked up all of the weapons and also all the belts that the geonosians had been supplied with. As he was finishing this, he came across the device that his first victim had been so busily trying to work. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt to learn its function, Vor tucked it into one of the belts and walked over to the speeder. As he dropped the plunder into a heap near the crippled craft, he wondered how they were going to carry what ever it was they ahd been sent here for without a vehicle.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 23
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:19 pm 
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While they were dividing up the equipment, Vor again ran afoul of Sarriks unusually angry current attitude. When he had loaded his pack with five times the amount that Sarrik had, his master had started one of his unwarrented swearing and stomping fits. Telling Vor just what he thought of his attempt to carry more than was his fair share.

Sarrik was brought up short in his rant however when Vor bent over and casually lifted the entire front end of the speeder off the ground while still wearing the overful backpack. "Vor many much stronger Sarrik being! Student mean dishonor none is, but quiet being and moving soon is yes no? Yes!" With that he pushed the speeder sideways and let it drop with a loud crash.

Sarrik looked from the speeder to his student several times and then headed off towards a distant mountain peak laughing and shaking his head. As they marched, Vor tried to see what he could find on the geonosians from the data disks he had brought with him. It seemed that very little was known of this race. The imperials had all but devistated the race befoer leaving the planet and had placed it under a quarenteen to prevent inquisitive civilians from landing here.

There was however a precise account of how many companies of troopers were lost and presumed dead after the war that had shaken the planet. From what Vor read, there were a total of twenty seven full companies listed as not returned to duty prior to the clones lifting from geonosis. By the great egg, such a number was impossible for Vor to believe. How could they have lost so many men and failed to make even a token effort to find them. Then again. maybe there was more here than met the eye.

They were forced several times to backtrack and loose long periods of travel time due to the droid being unable to follow through some of the rougher terrain. Sarrik had voiced his opinion about this quite loudly. "Piece of mechanical pudu! A blind Hutt could make it through there, but noooo not our wonderous advanced combat droid." At which time he spat at the rocks that were impeding progress. Vor nearing the limit of his tolerance for his masters seemingly inexhaustable poor temper, Lifted the droid up and bodily carried it over the obstruction and placed it gently down on more even ground.

Sarrik turned to his student and opened his mouth as if to spout some sort of abuse, only to see Vor hissing and showing all his meat teeth and waggling his index claw in a negative manner. His mouth snapped shut like a blast door in a firefight. and they continued till near sunset before they spoke.

Sarrik stopped and looked through a pair of Macronoculars. He seemed to be scanning the distance for possible movement. He handed the device to Vor and said, "There just this side of the dry riverbed to the South of the mountain. Tell me what you think." Vor looked through the device as best he could with his larger than human or zabrak eyes. At the indicated location was a large pyramidal shape that seemed no more that an upthrust rock. But as he changes the focus Vor saw the swarming activity around the base of the structure.

"Hssssssssssssss Hive being. Many much thousands creatues is." He tried to note as much detail as possible. He did notice that the creatures seemed to be armed in various ways. He counted possibly one in fifty carrying the sonic weapons, the rest seemed armed with pole arms and various melee weapons of unfamiliar design. But regardless of armament, Sarrik and he would be swamped by sheer numbers if they fell prey to that many geonosians.

Sarrik sighed and dropped his heavy pack to the ground. "Ok. We have two options. We can try and avoid that hive by tracking to the West about a kilometer or so, or we can wait here till night fall and hope that they are like some other insectoid species and are torpid at night when it is cold. That way we can slip by then with just a small deviation in travel." He detatched a water container from his belt and took a drink, then offered the container to his student.

Vor shook his head and thought about what they should do. Obviously the safe option was to take the long route and be sure to miss the hive all together. He was about to voice this opinion when the combat droid whipped around and began to fire furiously at the top of the hill to the rear of thier position. Vor was busy unstrapping his pack as the unnoticed swarm of geonosians that had been following them struck.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 24
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:21 pm 
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Overkill, was the only word that Vor could use to describe his current pisition. His captors had wanted to be 'sure' that he would not menace them again, so they had used energy shackles on his wrists and ankles and double think chains on his upper arms and legs. To top it all off, they had thrown him into a cell that had a forcefield that would have stopped a crashing freighter. These creatures were taking no chances after the devistation that he and Sarrik had wrought on the planet surface.

When the swarm had hit them, the first thing Vor had noticed was that each of the leading geonosians was carrying the same curious device that he had taken from thier earlier attackers. And they were aiming them all at the combat droid. Thinking back, he seemed to remember something about the geonosians being very adept at droid and weapon design.

Whatever the purpose of the strange devices, they had failed to function and the droid began taking its toll of the attackers. Sarrik and Vor, back to back had started a slaughter that, when they were finally overwhelmed, left a pile of bodies so high the attackers had been forced to climb thier own dead to get at the two.

The last sight that Vor had been given of Sarrik was as he was smashed to the ground by what must have been between fifty and one hundred of the creatures. As Vor killed even while going down, he saw Sarrik valiently standing his ground. His hands and arms were slashed and bleeding form pulverizing the hard shells of the attackers and his face was set in grim determination. Then Vor was swarmed under and saw no more.

When he had finally come back to the world of the living, He was already in this cell with what looked to be at least twenty five guards outside the forcefield all holding the sonic weapons pointing at the recumbant Trandoshan. Vor laughed to himself. It was quite clear that they had learned to respect the power of thier current prisoner. Acting as if the chains weighed nothing at all, he stood and walked as close to the forcefield as he dared.

The cell was alone in this chamber. As he surveyed the room, he saw that there was door thqt was standing open and seemed to lead down a darkened hallway. Both this room and the hall seemed as if they had been chewed out of the solid rock. Knowing how brittle the exoskeletons of the creatures was, Vor wondered how they had managed to burrow this all out.

As he had approached the front of the cell, the guards had stepped back and raised thier weapons reflexively. Vor hissed his laughter and tried to look as menacing as he could as he spoke. "Where Vor partner being? Telling Vor or paying consequences is many much creatures!" As the last word came out, he lunged against the weight of the chains. As they snapped taught, rock dust exploded into the air where they were attached to the walls.

The mechanical voice of the translator came from one of the creatures as it clicked out its words. "It will not talk, nor will it move or it dies!" Vor grinned and strained against the chains on his arms. The chains themselves began to make tortured noises as they absorbed the power and held. "It will desist or we will kill it! Its partner/friend/associate is in another cell and it also will be killed if this one does not follow orders/commands/requests."

With the knowledge that Sarrik was alive Vor relaxed his attack on the chains and returned to where he had been placed originally and sat down to meditate. He knew that whatever was to come would require all his strength and calm action. So with not another thought to his captors, he dropped in the meditative posture and quickly lost all sense of anything but his inner self. No matter what was ahead, he would be ready!

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 25
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:25 pm 
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He had no idea how long they had been here. No more than a few cycles at a guess by the number of times the geonosians threw what passed for food into the cell he occupied. He was in a meditative trance when he was jolted back to normal senses by a thunderous explosion. As he came to his feet dust was falling from the ceiling and the sound of blaster fire and sonic weapons reverberated from the halls outside.

There was something not quite right about the sound of the blasters to Vors ears. They were just a little too low pitched and did not sound like anything he had heard before. Before he could ponder this further, a dozen figures in strange armor entered the hall and began shooting down the guards. Several of the armored figures were killed in the ensuing battle but thier greater accuracy was telling and soon the room was thiers.

One of the figures approached the cell and spoke. "Stand away from the entrance, we have to blast it open." Vor, as requested, went to the back of the cell and covered his head in his arms. The explosion threw him to the floor, but when he looked up, he saw that the cell entrance had been widened to twice it's original size and four armored beings were helping him to his feet. "Are you alright?" one of them asked.

Vor nodded his head in the affirmative and the armored people hustled him into the hall where he was helped to stand while others went to open another cell. There was something troubling about these armored ones. The armor was not known to him, but there was something. The voices maybe, he couldn't be sure though. The second cell was opened in the same way as his had been and a dust covered Sarrik was soon by his side.

"Bout time you got us some help you big lizard!" He said as he smiled at his student. The armored group quickly gathered near them. "We need to hurry. They will have the whole hive after us if we don't move out now." Sarrik nodded and they started down a long hall. There were suprisingly few fights along the way to the surface. The armored group made short work of the few geonosians that stumbled into thier path.

As they exited, Vor and Sarrik were quickly placed into a craft the likes of which Vor had never seen. The sides were open to the air and it had a cockpit crew of two. There were two ventral wings that looked as if they may have held missile tubes at one time. As the last of the group got onboard, the craft lifted and they were away.

The flight was fairly long, but the armored group had been all business and no time to talk enroute. When they finally landed it was near the wall of a huge escarpment that housed what looked to be a series of caves. The landing area would not be visible from overhead and from the looks of it even someone walking by would not see it inless they were very very good.

As they all filed into one of the caves, Sarrik finally had reached his limit. "Listen! While I am not ungrateful for the rescue, I would really like to know who the hell you people are so I can decide if I need to thank you or start cracking some skulls!"

The armored ones looked at each other for a short time then one came forward and said "Of course sir, this way please." and moved off to the interior of the cave. As Vor followed his teacher and the armored one, he looked carefully at the blaster that was in the armored holster. Very old design. he had seen ones like it. but only in the hands of collectors, never used in battle. As he finished his inpection they reached thier destination. The room here had been blasted out of the living rock and was well lit and appointed.

A man wearing a hooded robe and nothing else came forward. he was human, approximately 2 meters tall and the fur that humans called hair was shoulder length and sandy brown in color. He extended his hand to Sarrik who crossed his arms and ignored it, scowling at the human in return. "Ahh, and you must be the new arrivals that the clones retrieved." Vor almost had it, but still could not place the connection that was still troubling him.

The human shrugged off Sarriks obvious insult and continued. " I am called DeLong, Lorak DeLong and I am very glad to meet you both. Please, sit and refresh yourselves." He gestured into the room behind him. At a sign from DeLong, the armored one left the room and returned to the entry way. Vor thought the human was at least 50 standard years of age, and yet he seemed to carry himself as a warrior. as if there were some inner strength that gave the man the might of many.

As he sat, Loraks robe parted slightly and Vor saw a device of some sort swinging from a belt. This was quickly hidden and Vor thought nothing more of it as he reached for a large whole roast leg of some animal that smelled delicious. As he was devouring the meat in huge gulps, Sarrik spoke at last to the human.

"So, what is it that a Jedi would want with the likes of us?!?!"

As Vor swallowed, he thought about what Sarrik had just said. This human a Jedi? He had been taught that the Jedi were all but extinct and that the ways of the Teras Kasi were in place to keep a check on the Jedi of long ago. As he continued to eat he looked carefully at the old man and appraised what he saw. Not a terribly imposing sight to be sure. He looked fit enough, but also seemed as if a good strong slap would end his life. Sarrik had warned him of the Jedi ways and given him some background on what they would face should they ever meet one. This old man seemed hardly capable of being such a terrible threat.

Lorak spoke again. "I have been here ever since the first battle of the clone wars. I was with the Jedi masters that came he so long ago to rescue Obi Wan Kenobi from execution at the hands of Count Dooku and his accomplises. I was put in charge of three divisions of troopers and ordered to hold the pass you aw on way here against counter attack from the Trade Federation. When all was said and done, I had less than a single division of troops, had held the pass, but had been abandoned here to waste away." Lorak never once looked up at his audience. All the while that he spoke, he looked at a holocube that he was turning over and over in his hands.

"After a few years I came to realize that no rescue was coming. The Republic had forgotten me and assumed I was dead I suppose. But with your coming, I can take these troops back and take my rightful place in the council once again." At last he looked up and made eye contact with Sarrik. The zabrak made a terrible sound. Vor assumed it was laughter. "You have much to learn Jedi! The Republic is no more. The Jedi council was disbanded by the simple fact that Darth Vader hunted down and killed every single Jedi in the galaxy. And while I have to truck with the Empire, I do appreciate his removal of a thorn in the side of the Teras Kasi Order."

Vor was never sure what happened next. Lorak had moved in a blur of speed, but Sarrik seemed to move even faster. There was a flurry of movement and a sound that the trandoshan had never heard before. When the human and zabrak stopped moving, it was with Sarrik in control. There was a weapon in the humans hands that Vor had never seen before. It had a "blade: some 2 meters in length and was a fuzzy green as it hummed with energy. The blade was currently being held near the humans own throat due to the hold that Sarrik had him in.

"Turn off the sabre or die Jedi!" Said Sarrik in a low and deadly voice. Vor could see the human struggling to free himself. Sarrik freed his left hand and delivered a devistating blow to Loraks neck, knocking him out instantly. As the human fell, Sarrik snatched the weapon as it fell and thumbed a switch which seemed to make the blade retract into the far smaller handle. No more than 10 of Vors heartbeats had gone by while the entire action had happened. The trandoshan dropped his food and advanced on the prostrate human. Sarrik signaled him back and said, "Leave him. He will be more trouble than he is worth. I am going to leave a little present for him to think about while he spends the rest of his days here. Now we have to figure out how to get out of here while he is out without getting shot by the clones."

Looking around the chamber it was soon clear that the only weapon to be had was the one the human had attempted to use. As Vor went to retrieve it from where Sarrik had tossed it, the weapon, on its own accord, flew through the air and went to the hand of the impossibly battle ready Lorak. As the weapon reached his hand it snapped into deadly brilliance. "Now Teras Kasi, now we will speak of these things that you speak of and we shall learn the truth of them."

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 26
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:28 pm 
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The humming from the weapon was starting to make a sympathetic harmonic response in Vors ridge bones. This was quite annoying as it seemed to make him just the slightest bit off balance. Sarrik had gone into a combat position as soon as he had heard the jedi speak.. "I don't wish to kill you zabrak and I am not sure how you managed to get so close to me the first time, but I assure you it will not happen again. Now, do we talk or do we end this here and now?" Said Lorak, never taking his eyes off Sarrik for even a moment.

Vor slowly began to move to the side to circle behind the jedi is possible. The dizziness from the humming was getting worse and he had to find a way to stop it. There, on the floor, less than a meter away, was a sturdy looking length of pipe that he could use for a weapon. Looking back, he saw that both Lorak and Sarrik were watching each other. No words were spoken. Vor leaped forward grabbing the pipe as he executed a forward roll and snapped out on his feet and in combat ready stance.

"Tell the reptile what will happen if it attacks me with that pipe. zabrak!" Still Loraks gaze never wavered from Sarrik. "Why? I got to you once jedi and I can do it again. And Vor is quite capable of knowing what he should and should not do in a fight." As he said the last, he moved faster than Vors eye could follow. The jedi moved as well and there was a flurry of movement that he could not make out due to the extreme speed of both combatants.

Sarrik leaped and flipped backwards through the air avoiding a slice from the jedis weapon. Now is my chance, thought Vor. He leaped forward staying low to get the best speed and impact from the attack. As he came in, he raised the pipe over his head and prepaird to crush the humans skull. Before he could complete the blow, a pain more intense than any he had ever experienced before exploded from his wrists. Even with the excruciating pain, he managed to recover and roll to a safe distance and snap to his feet. As he brought his hands up to blocking position he realized that he no longer had hands.

This realization brought the pain to all new heights of searing agony. There across the room were his hands, still clutching the length of pipe. Before the pain could overwhelm him entirely, Vor used the mind technique that Sarrik had taught him and shut off all the pain receptors to his hands. Instantly he was without pain and ready to try and find a way to fight Lorak with no hands.

Sarrik had not been idle while this was happening. Any tiny object that was withing reach became a weapon. Sarrik became a machine, bombarding Lorak with objects of all sorts and shapes. The Jedi for his part was a figure of pure motion. Any item that would not hit was ignored, all others were expertly deflected by the weapon as it blurred into motion. It was almost as if the weapon were moving of its onw accord and Lorak was simply following it's wishs.

Lorak smiled as he deftly stopped each incomming object. "You asked for this zabrak! I was willing to do this the civil way, but now you will both die!" As he deflected item after item, he began to move forward. He had hadrly move at all when Sarrik hurled what seemed to be a hand full of sand at him. As the cloud was intersected by the jedis weapon, it exploded into activity. It seemed almost as if the attack had awoken some anger in the cloud. Sarrik grabbed Vor and ran with him to the back of the chamber.

The jedi was insane with movement. A scream stared deep deep in his throat as he dropped his weapon to the floor and began to swat and tear at his own skin. The screaming from Lorak rose in pitch and intensity. Vor could now see that Lorak was slowly being eaten alive. His skin seemed almost to disolve under the attack of what Sarrik had thrown. Sarrik face was impassive as he watched death of Lorak. Vor saw several troopers enter the chamber and leave as quickly as they could when they saw what was happening to the screaming jedi.

The scream had gone from a high pitched wail to a low moan as the remains of Lorak slipped to the chamber floor. What remained was not even distunguishable as human. The tiny creatures that had done this seemed almost to become sand again at this time. Vor looked to Sarrik questioningly. "Don't ask me what they are, but I noticed that there was a small hive of them near that chest there. I also noticed that there was a goodly pile of animal bones near the hive."

"I believe that the Jedi used them as a sort of trap in this chamber for the unwary. But when he attacked the ones I threw, he lost his control over the little beasts and they turned on him. I had hoped as much. Now lets see about getting you out of here." With that Sarrik started towards the entrance to the chamber. Stopping only to retrieve Loraks weapon as he passed. Vor looked in surprise at him. Sarrik always said that weapons, any weapons, were for the weak. Sarrik chuckled and said, "Call it a trophy. Had Lorak not lost his way with the Force, he would never have struck at the insects. He never would have attacked us in the first place."

"You see, a Jedi of his standing should have been beyond anger. My statement was designed to see just how far from the Jedi path he had fallen in his years here in exile." Sarrik looked back at the remains and shook his head. "Jedi are too powerful to begin with. And a Jedi that looses his way is worse than one who turns to the dark side! A rogue with the powers of a God. Or so they would like to believe." At this Sarrik shrugged and again moved towards the exit, Vor in tow wondering just what his master was not capable of.
_________________

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There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 27
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:31 pm 
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Sarrik knew that he had to get Vor to a safer place to rest and check the wound. It was very possible that he could go into shock at any second and Sarrik was sure he would be unable to carry his friend and student out on his own. "Listen Vor, you stay here while I check the hall." With that he started cautiously down the darkened passage. As Sarrik left Vor fell instantly into the meditative healing trance of his race. This was not an action of choice but rather an instinctual reaction to the massive injury he had sustained.

As he rounded the corner, Sarrik heard the sound of marching approaching. Before he had time to hide, two full squads of armored troopers came to a halt in front of him. The leader spoke." Sir, we heard screams coming from the Jedi's chambers. We sent a team to investigate and they reported the Jedi being killed by a swarm of Rockmite larvae." Sarrik began to back up to give himself room to fight as the trooper continued.

"While we have been under his command for sometime now and have a few great victories, we are sure that you can help us get off this planet and back to our proper chain of command. Therefore we have decided that the death fo the Jedi, while lamentable, is not our primary concern. we await your orders sir!" As he finished, he and the rest of the troopers snapped to attention and saluted smartly.

It had taken some time to convince the trooopers that Vor was not to be moved, but as soon as Sarrik had seen the flesh on his wrists that had been scarred and burnt begin to slowly become yellowish green and healthy again, he had known that this was a healing trance. All he could do now was wait and talk with the troopers. After his initial distrust, he had come to find the troopers most helpful and willing to give thier lives if need be for his objectives.

He had been quite shocked when he had seen the face of the lead trooper when he remove this helmet. The man was old. Far older than the movement and energy would seem to indicate. When asked thier ages the troopers replied with thier operational numbers. These seemed to indicate the batch of clones they had been grown with, the genetic facilities they had been given and the type of postion they were suited for.

He was beginning to see how, while they were all technically the same man, they were so very different. For example, the TK series of troopers were designed to be good at one thing. Fighting and dying. They were given the top training in hand weapons and drilled to near perfection. But not a single TK would ever dream of giving an order. even were he the last standing at a battle he would wait for the orders from above before he moved from his spot.

The AN series on the other hand were made for the officer position. They were trained in the arts of strategy and battle command and were adept at gaining victories. This, thought Sarrik, is where the current empire was hamstringing itself. It had placed non clone officers in charge of it's clone troops. Who could better handle a battle plan for clones than another clone trained to do just that. Especially when the officer technically knew exactly how every single soldier thought.

While this was all fascinating, Sarrik was of two minds concerning these men. The empire definately did not need more men to use in it's attempt to stamp out all freedoms in the galaxy. But then again, what were the chances that troops this old would be used as combat groups even if he did take them off planet? He was not sure exactly what he would do with them and decided to let the decision wait till a more appropriate time. Right now he was getting first hand knowledge of the old republic from these men and was recording every word.

Sarrik was glad these men never asked him questions about the galaxy as it was now. He did not waht to lie to them if he could help it. When he had learned all that they knew of the old times, he began to sketch out the reason he was here. Yes they knew where the weapons cache was. The Jedi had tried to liberate it on several occasions and had been driven back by force of numbers by the Geonosians time and time again. Sarrik saw a way to make this time different and sketched the plan out to the troop leaders.

As he was heading out with his new army, Sarrik placed a full squad of troopers to stand guard over the healing Vor. "You will protect him at any cost. Do you understand me?" "Yes sir!" Turning, Sarrik, at the head of his troops headed out into the desert in the hopes of fulfilling the mission he had ben sent here for.

The innitial assault had been easy. The Geonosians had been totally unprepaired for the attack of the full compliment of troopers left on the planet. All previous attacks hed been by small numbers attempting a stealthy insertion. Sarrik had led the first attack and had left a path of dead and dying as wide as his fists could reach, behind him as he went. After what seemed like ages fo constant fighting, the geonosians broke contact and retreated into thier catacombs.

The lead trooper produced a light and went over the very old hard copy map that was thier only guide here. As the entire group made its way towards the location Sarrik had been given as the main weapons repository, they met only sporadic and easily dispatched resistance. The zabrak had noticed that the geonosians were much more resistant to blasters than they were to full contact melee attacks and had the troopers holster thier weapons and use the assorted hand weapons he had insisted they bring.

There was only one spot along the way that had worried Sarrik. And they were approaching it rapidly now. There was a huge open chamber that was the last open area before the weapons storage cave. This open cavern was ideal for the type of swarm attack that the insect like geonosians loved to use. Unfortunately there was no alternative but to attempt the cavern crossing. There simply was no other entry yo the weapons area.

The troopers had at first shown uncharacteristic reluctance to attack this hive in force for the simple task of weapons retrieval. "But sir!" Said ont of the grizzled old troopers, "We have enough weapons for each trooper and our techs have kept them in perfect working order. Why would we wish to procure more that we can possibly use or keep in good repair?" This was a good point and required an answer, and Sarrik was not about to tell then it was for a collectors whim.

"The galaxy has moved on since you last saw it. Technology has moved in new and much more powerful directions from when your equimpment was state of the art. I am simply attempting to secure a weapons cache that was thought lost forever. This old style technology would be thought of as uniquely interesting and think of how much more the persons who can maintain it will be needed when we leave planet."

His arguements had been the sawiyng factor and now he was dreading this as they approached the last place that the natives were likely to make a stand. As they approached the chamber, Sarrik sent two squads ahead to scout the way and attempt to set off any ambush that may be laying in wait. His two squads returned at the scheduled time to report negative enemy contact.

With no other alternative, Sarrik settled the troopers into a defensive formation and marched them into the darkened chamber. The small army was perhaps half the distance across when small explosions could be heard from both ends of the chamber simultaniously. "Sir, Scouts one and seven report chamber entry and exit blocked by explosive collapse. we're trapped sir."

Before the echo could die from the troopers voice in the huge room, the ceiling and walls came alive and began to move. They were indeed trapped and this was going to be the hardest fight of thier long and troubled lives.

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 28
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:34 pm 
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'How long have we been doing this?' wondered the tired zabrak as he killed one then another, and yet another of the numberless Geonosians. The first wave of the attack had been totally obliterated but the troopers. Thier protective armor was easily the equal of the creatures exoskeletons and allowed then to inflict terrible blows on the enemy.

Wave after wave after wave had attacked them. There was only the briefest of intervals between them. After the twentieth wave, Sarrik had stopped counting and just went into a sort of murderous trance. He had become a single minded engine of destruction that demolished anything that came within his reach.

As the current wave was beaten back and destroyed, the troopers arms fell heavily to thier sides as they slumped to the ground exhausted. Blasters were nearly useless and they had been forced to fight hand to hand for the main portion of the battle. Even these clones bred and designed for battle were showing the strain of the unceasing fighting.

One of the troopers, a squad leader by his armor markings approached Sarrik. Sarrik swung out blindly with a spinning kick followed by the full force closed fist. The trooper was thrown to the wall where he impacted with an bone jarring thud. It was quite clear that he was dead by the trail of blood that was left on the wall as the body slid off of the wall to lie on a lifeless puddle of blood and armor.

The other troopers had known better than to approach the battle frenzied zabrak and simply sat and rested in the hopes that they would be able to hold thier arms up when the next wave came. Thier casualties had been remarkably light considering the size of each of the enemy waves they had faced.

But in a battle where the enemy seemed without number and able to make new warriors from thin air, a battle of attrition was a losing one for the troopers. They had lost eighteen men so far and had twentyfive more that were too bady hurt to stand and fight. As they sat an pondered the timing for the next attack, the entire cavern was shaken by a thunderous explosion.

The entire cavern rocked as if by a momentary earthquake. Being thrown to the floor snapped Sarrik from his daze and he peered around to find a command trooper. "You there! What is your operations number." Tsck. AN-113 Sir." Tsck. Antoher explosion rocked the cavern. This one much closer than the last, small bits of rock and fine dust falling from the cavern ceiling.

"What does that sound like to you?" Sarrik asked the trooper. Tsck. "I would have to say surface bombardment sir. And fairly high yield by the feel of the stratus movement." Tsck As the next concussion rocked the cave, light poured in from the area they had entered from as the door that had been closed behind them fell to rubble.

"Everyone up and out! NOW!" Yelled Sarrik as he bodily lifted one of the injured troopers over his shoulder and bent to grab yet a second. The other troppers were galvenized into action and were into the corridor and on thier way to freedom before the order from the zabrak had ceased to echo from the cavern walls.
_________________

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 29
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:37 pm 
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The sight that reached thier eyes as they exited finally into the blazing sunlight was enough to bring Sarrik to his knees. The valley outside the entrance was a solid mass of movement and all of it enemy soldiers. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but enemy bodies seeking somewhere to strike. Then came the high pitched whine of a fighter as it strafed low over the valley.

Looking up, Sarrik was stunned to see the familier Avian logo blazing on the sides of the modified Nubian fighter that dropped bomb after bomb from mounts on the underside. As each detonated, a wave of insectile liquid sprayed in every direction for hundreds of meters.The wave of dead geonosians like the shrapnel from a grenade killing others as it tore through the air. Anton must be using very high yield bombs indeed.

Unfortunately the number of the enemy was such that even the awsome destruction left in the wake of Anton's bombing filled up with new warriors nearly before the sound of the explosions faded. They might as well have been fighting the entire desert on Tatooine for all the luck they would have defeating a foe this numerous.

As he watched the nubian climb and bank for another run, he heard and even more familier sound and watched as the Black Rain screamed in low over the valley, her quad mount belly cannons leaving a trail of death two meters wide and the entire length of the valley in her wake. As he watched Anton begin his next run, Sarrik spotted something on the Northern rim, opposite his position and on the other side of the numberless hoards.

As he looked into the macronoculars, he saw that he had been right. there was something there. A Large number of somethings. What seemed to be an entire army of droid was advancing on the geonosians and every one armed with six arms each swinging a large metal club. The logo was quite plain on the chests of the droids. Avian Advanced Droid Systems blazed forth as the small army waded into the geonosians creating an instant thrust of the main body to protect itself from this new assault.

The geonosians had been thinning in an effort to reduce the efficacy of the bombing and had no time to reform thier lines before the droids slammed into thier rear. The droids were making solid headway and advancing towards Sarriks position at a good clip leaving a trail of dead insect warriors as they passed. Unfortuantely Sarrik saw what would happen.

As the droids passed, as with the bombing, the dead warriors were replaced from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of geonosians and the droids were quickly surrounded and bogged down by fighting on all sides. This brought the advance to a standstill and also trapped the droids in a circle of eventual destruction.

Just when it seemed that the droids were indeed done for, another sight made Sarrik smile. The Avian Security force wearing the best Emissive Technology could provide, hit the soldiers from the left flank in a wedge that drove nearly to the droids in the center of the arean before slowing significantly. Again this seemed a foolhardy move considering the manner in which the Geonosians refilled and reformed behind the wedge.

As the wedge was completely surrounded, yet another surprise, from the right flank came the speeding wedge of the Avian Angels. Thier swoop bikes modified with armored plate on the frontal sections were used in the manner of battering rams and were instant death to any insects they encountered. The Angels wedge drove competely through the geonosians and circled to make another pass.

With this action, Sarrik motioned the remaining troopers to form up and prepair for the coming battle. He would not allow the Avians to come to his rescue and not have raised a hand to help as well. With a yell to his troops, he entered the battle, all the time thinking what a completely lousy day this had been.

The battle had been going entirely too well. The Geonosians seemed to fall before the Avian attack like ripe wheat before the sickle. The second pass of the Angels had devistated the remaining enemy troops and had given the Droids the chance to break out of thier confinement and take the fight to the insects.

Angus and Anton had been making flybys to give reports of battle status to the commanders on the ground. As Angus was making what he thought was likely to be his final pass before Avian emerged victiorious, he saw a sight that chilled him to the bone. The ground beneath the contingent of combat droids just disappeared. The droids fell instantly from sight and hordes of Geonosians swarmed from the gaping maw where there had been solid ground a moment before.

As he relayed this information, more and more holes began to open in and around the Avian lines. In each case a large section of the ground just gave way and out poured the enemy in endless waves of armor plated death. The ground forces of the Avians pulled back and cunsolidated thier lines. The Angels on thier swoops were raking the outer lines of the enemy causing casualties in the hundreds each pass.

The geonosians seemed to be milling about for a short time and Angus was not sure what they were waiting for. It was obvious that they had the Avians outnumbered thousands to one. Then he saw it. And his heart froze in his chest. A huge cloud seemed to darken the entire sky to the West. This was no cloud, the Rain read it as one huge bio mass. The Geonosian air suppor had arrived.

Before he could so much as radio the new situation to the commanders below, the swarm of flyers had surrounded the Rain and began to literally land on the ship. They were beginning to force her down by sheer weight of mass before Angus flipped on the shield generators. Insect fluid and carapace shrapnel exploded outwards from the ship and the Rain began to circle again to keep the battle in sight.

The tide had turned and things were very grim on the ground. Nearly half the Angels were down due to attacks from on high. The ground forces were holding thier own against the waves of the enemy, but would surely be swarmed under very soon. As the next wave hit the Avian lines and began to break through, the droids that had not been destroyed in the fall, emerged and slashed into the rear of the enemy with a vengence.

The Avians cheered as the wave was beaten back. Unfortunately it had cost them dearly. All of the droids were now destroyed or disabled and would never again raise a blaster. The Angels were down to half thier original number. Granted there had been no fatalities, but the injuries were terrible and would be quite some time in the healing. The Security Forces were not much better off.

As the Avians began to take stock and prepair to fight off the next wave, the Black Rain landed in the fore of the lines and her cannons took up a steady fire towards the already approaching enemy. Angus knew the Avians were done for if something did not break soon. The enemy front slammed into the Avians full speed. The cannon on the Rain made good on thier promise of death and destroyed the enemy in the dozens each time they spoke. Even so the Avians were swarmed under and just as the commanders of the troops called for a retreat, strangely, the Geonosians all retreated.

The Avians were stunned. The relief that they felt was beyond all hope and yet they could not believe that an enemy that had been ready to destroy them entirely had pulled back at the lasy moment. Angus called Anton and told him to leave off the strafing attacks he had been making non stop on the enemy. Untold thousands had fallen to the nubian fighters precise blasters. Sarrik finally approached the ship and climbed aboard.

He had been slowly ever so slowly making his way through the mass of enemy bodies towards the Avian lines. He had lost every trooper that had been with him in the process. Each trooper had taken fifty times thier number of enemy but in the end even they fell to the claws of the geonosians. Angus smiled up at his friend and pointed towards the enemy lines. The entire army of deadly insects parted and a single tall figure passed through the breach. In his arms what looked to be a smaller version of the warriors they had been killing.
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_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject: Part 30-The End
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 11:39 pm 
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As the lone figure approached the Rain, the Coms unit began a frantic beeping that instantly drew Angus' attention. There was a message being beamed directly to the ship from an unknown location somewhere on the planet. As he punched the button for recieve, Angus was surprised to see a white armored face staring back at his.


Tsck. "Sir, I am trying to locate either Sarrik or someone named Angus MacGregor. I was instructed to use this frequency for the transmission by the injured Trandoshan named Vor whom I am currently charged with guarding." Tsck. Angus instantly replied. "This is MacGregor. What is the problem, we are kind of busy here at the moment trying to beat the entire planet."

The armored visage did not seem to understand the humor in Angus' statement. Tsck. "Understood sir. I was instructed to make this call and request assistance in the defence of Vor Kragresh. We are currently under attack by far superior forces. While we have the advantage at the moment, our locational superiority will only last a short time. I am hereby requesting either reinforcement or extraction as soon as possible." Tsck.

Angus placed both hands on his forehead and slowly ran them back over his head as he thought what to tell the trooper. Obviously they had no troops to spare and the only ship capable of carrying that kind of personel was the Rain, or possibly the transport that the rest of the Avians had arrived in. Angus was not sure when he would be able to send help.

"Listen, whatever your name is. We are surrounded and badly outnumbered here. Until we have our own position resolved you will have to hold your ground there alone. Do you understand that? You must hold that position until we can arrive." Tsck. "Understood sir. We will hold here until further orders." Tsck. Angus made a quick comms check and talked to all the other Avian units

The Angels were down nearly 60% in manpower but were ready to resume the attack if the enemy made another move. The Security forces were down to 75% of thier original numbers, but had additional combat droids marching in bolstering thier numbers every second now. Anton was engaged with a large number of flying Geonosians some few kilometers to the south that had not yet broken off. He reported that his ship was slightly damaged but he believed he would have the battle there won momentarily.

As for the Rain, well she had come out of this with hardly a scratch. The sonic weapons that the Geonosians employed were nothing to the mighty ships shielding, and only the odd missiles were actually scoring on her plating. All in all the battle while looking grim, was going the way of the Avians. But as Angus looked over the situation map, he saw that the Avians were not the only ones recieving reinforcements. From what he could see, some two million new warriors had joined the enemy and were positioning themselves in the weakest areas.

Just as Angus let out a sigh of dread, he heard Jaero let out a hissing breath and spoke a single name at the approaching figure on the ground.

"VENTA!"

_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
THere is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no pasion; there is sernity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
-from the Jedi Code


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2004 12:35 am 
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Location: Monticello KY.
It was indeed Vors murderous eggbrother Venta. Standing next to the towering Trandoshan was a Geonosian like no other Angus had seen before. Thicker in the body and with a larger head than was the norm. It was obvious from the way the warriors parted for this new type of insect that it was a leader. It was further obvious to Angus that things were not going to be good, for the warriors were also giving the same respectful distance to Venta. The Doshan raised a device to his face and all the Avians were able to hear him as he spoke. "Avians. I give you your due in respect. You have fought well and honorably against overwhelming odds. But even you must admit that there is no way that you can win." As he said the last words, a blip appeared on Angus' local airspace alert screen. Small, definately a one man fighter. Crippled by the look of the erratic path it was following. Angus leaned forward over the controls and could just make out the outline of the modified Nubian as if left a smoking corona trail before disappearing behind a bluff some distance away.

"The pilot was not the first of you to fall Avians, but there need be no further loss of life. Give me my brother and you may all leave here in peace and unharmed. Refuse and my.....friends....will ear you apart to the last being. You have some small time to consider. But I warn you, any overt agressive movement will be met with instant and total annihilation." This said Venta turned his back to the Avians and spoke with the insect king.

Angus turned the comm unit to all Avian and said, "Well I don't know about you folks, but even if we DID know where Vor was I would not give him over to this Ugly bastard lizard. Any ideas? It's not looking good for the home team out there." There was a general buzz and mutter on the channel as the Avians debated the best strategy to employ. Angus' attention buzzer had just sounded when there was a disturbance in the enemy ranks. Angus turned the outside microphones to directional and aimed them towards the area that was in motion.

The ground under a company of the insect warriors collapsed and from the newly birthed crater crawled the biggest Graul Mauler Angus had ever seen. and cradeled gently in it's arms was the Avian in question. Vor!

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Avian Technology and Trade
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