The benefits of secession

[Aurelie Fleury]

Not too long ago, the newly reunited Sith Empire had blown up like a pinata with many world seceding from the newly formed entity. It had to be a real head-scratcher for the Imperial command who would surely want to retake their lost territories. But, before that happened, a problem seemed to start manifesting itself for some of the seceding states as they had an increasingly hard time protecting themselves from dangers. Exoleen was one of the planets which had found itself struggling against the harsh reality outside of the Empire, lacking in both military strength and political pull as before.

With Hask away on business, Aurelie had been on the lookout for new opportunities and had taken particular note of Exoleen's vulnerable position. She had already been on the world for a few days and familiarized herself with the culture, drawing heavily from her past trade ventures on it with her father. More importantly, the girl had been on the hunt for information regarding shipping lanes and security routines and felt like she had found a perfect opportunity for a hefty profit.

The young thief was very well aware of Hask's desire to upgrade the Hellion and had her eyes set on a shipment containing a bunch ship parts and a medium Military Deflector Shield. She had already sent a message to the Sith reading:
Heya Chief!
I hope you've put the speeder to good use on your business trip, for you'll be forgetting all about it soon! I've found something which you might like on Exoleen, kinda! :D
Bring your sneaky shoes and the Hellion to dock B24 at Thraxa spaceport, (trivia:it's the biggest spaceport on the planet!) I've already dealt (hihi) with the docking fees!

Aurelie could barely contain her excitement as she sat at a bunch of crates on the dock, feet waggling happily above the ground. She didn't mind waiting very much as they weren't under any real time pressure, yet - but once the plan was put in action, they'd be in quite a rush.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

Hask was on a Stargull, exiting out of hyperspace and docking on Exoleem. He started up his 88V and slowly drove out of the dock.

Once he was on open road he received a transmission from his first mate. He could clearly see that she was excited for this mission of theirs. He punched in the location and soon he was driving on the GPS towards the spaceport.

While Aurelie was scouting out Exoleem, Hask went to Nar Shaddaa to settle his personal problem...and settled it he did. He even got the new cybernetic left arm to prove it. It was clearly visible as he drove. Not bothering to cover it up in armour seeing as it was basically pointless to cover it up. He did retain the phrik gauntlet, however, fixing up a mag-pad connection between his arm and the gauntlet to keep it connected.

He didn't tell her what happened. He wanted to tell her face-to-face that he was finally free from the Empire. He didn't account for the arm but that was okay. All that mattered was that we was finally out.

He neared the spaceport, having a little trouble finding his way but soon he saw his ship and his co-pilot. He stopped by the ship and got off the speeder. When he reached her he took off his helmet, holding it under his right arm while his left rested on his hip.

"I don't remember paying you to sit around and look pretty, first mate." he said in a mocking stern voice, deciding to start their day off with a little joke.

"What's the scoop?" he said more seriously, placing his helmet on a crate and folding his arms across his chest as he waited for an explanation. The black and red-painted durasteel arm glistened a little in the sunlight.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Not paying attention had never really worked out very well for Aurelie, and this time was no exception. Rather absentmindedly, she had been watching the traffic outside the dock whilst considering the plan. The could hear Hask approaching from the side but waited until the last before turning to greet him. Always being quick to scan people, she registered the mechanical arm attached to the figure next to her and registered that the person next to her was indeed her Sith friend. The young woman's mind did, however, not make the connection between the two right away, perhaps dismissing it as too unthinkable or tragic. Instead she leaned her head to the side with a smile "Oh, but that's exactly what you do. You've even picked out which chair I am to sit in, captain!" She was rather happy with her retort but her satisfied expression soon started to fade away quickly as the girl's eyes started darting between Hask's face and his new arm. She soon jumped off of the crates and darted towards her friend "W-what happened?" she stuttered worriedly, stopping a meter away from him.

Seeing the Sith's current state felt like a rather surreal experience. Sure, she had seen mechanical prosthetics before but never on someone she actually knew. Ignoring his question, the young woman took a small step towards him as she tried to examine his new arm more closely. Her own arm raised a little as Aurelie got an impulse to touch the prosthetic but she soon realized that it might be a little sensitive for her friend and instead continued to upwards motion to scratch her neck. "I don't think I'll be able to patch that up" she said - her attempt at a joke failed rather miserably as her tone conveyed sadness rather than any kind of enthusiasm.

In the background, she could hear the announcements echoing throughout the spaceport "Last call for RA2885, Thraxa-Bontal. Last call for Thraxa-Bontal." For the briefest of moments, Aurelie's eyes glanced over at the exit before returning to Hask. Optimally, she'd have liked to begin by now, but it could wait a few more moments and her friend's current state seemed much more relevant.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

He laughed at her comment, though he expected a much worse reaction. He didn't have to wait long, because soon that reaction came. He just watched as she flew off her seat and rushed to him. He stood patiently as she examined him.

With a laugh he replied, "If you manage to fix this up you'll be better than every doctor, alchemist and witch in this galaxy."

He looked over his shoulder, listening to the announcement as it rang out. He looked back to her. "If that's part of your plan, I think we should be getting a move-on, either way I'll explain everything once the mission's complete. Don't worry though, I'm alright...promise." he placed the metallic hand reassuringly on her shoulder. Metallic or not, it was still his dominant hand so teaching himself to start using the other might be a problem.

"So what's the situation? Did you get anything good for us to use or are we going to be in for one wild ride?" he attempted to change the subject. With his messed up sense of humour getting the better of him, he followed up on his question. "I will say this though, joining the Exchange only cost me an arm and almost a leg." he light-heartedly stated with a toothy smile as he chuckled lightly.

Nothing like a little dark humour to start the day.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Well, at least Hask didn't seem to crestfallen about his new condition. Aurelie was quite surprised at how quickly he seemed to have managed to get over loosing a limb as he continued to build upon her attempt at a joke. What would normally be a rather witty retort felt somewhat bland to her as she was still downhearted by the Sith's new state. Nevertheless, the girl afforded him a meek toothless smile.

Hask soon seemed to move on, apparently picking up on her reaction to the announcement. The thief were often quite jovial and enthusiastic, but this had certainly worked to dampen her mood. However, her friend had the right mindset, they needed to get to work regardless of whether he had an arm made of flesh and blood or metal and wire. She didn't wear multiple layers of clothing like on Tatooine and could clearly feel his metallic hand on her shoulder. The girl turned her head to look at it and raised an arm to feel the object - it felt cool when she touched it, lifeless and hard.

After standing there for both one and two moments, Aurelie turned to look at Hask "You're right chief, we should get a move on. There's a shipment containing a medium military deflector shield headed towards this very space port." she said as they begun walking. She stayed on her friend's left hand side as she had no idea about what potential shortcomings the arm could have - at least she'd be there to help him out if needed. With a slight smirk, she continued "And I think we can take it for the Hellion. We could use some cheering-up, right?" it was obvious in her voice that she was starting to return to her optimistic self as she bumped Hask's new arm with her elbow.

Aurelie made a worried expression upon his mention of almost loosing a leg. Immediately, she looked down at it - but it looked normal. She then threw her hand at his thigh - it felt normal too. "You..." she said, staring at him. "You kriffin' huttspawn!" The young woman liberally threw a punch at the Sith's leg as she had clearly been frightened for a moment but was mostly happy that he weren't even more damaged.

***
​

It didn't take long for them to arrive at an observation point close to dock B24 where they could see most of the G-shaped spaceport. They stood at the corner of the G's mouth and from there, Aurelie pointed towards the center "That's flight command - they're basically in charge of anything space related on and above this continent. If we disrupt it, we'll have a much easier time when we go for the shipment." The young thief had run the plan through her head several times already but soon turned back to Hask "Uh, chief, can you fight? I mean, with that instead of, you know.." she pointed at his mechanical arm as she trailed off.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

His eyes went wide when she mentioned what she found. "You serious? Well damn, I can definitely see some use for that." he said in a shocked tone, growing quite excited of the idea.

They started walking away, towards the dock she mentioned. He laughed and jumped to the side a little when she caught on to his joke, throwing a punch towards his leg. "Hey, save that for the enemy, won't you!" he called out with a laugh.

Seeing her happy was definitely making him happy. Somehow it just felt wrong if her usually optimistic manner was just missing...

****
​

Hasl stood next to her, watching the spaceport and its workings. She pointed out the communications tower, and Hask could see a bunch of massive dishes and antennas on the roof, along with the Air Traffic Control tower with some guards. Sneaking past them in heavy armour would be a bit tricky, and he would have to be quick to take them out before the alarm was sounded...

He was pulled out of his thoughts when she asked him about his combat ability with the new arm. "...still getting used to the feel of it but other than that..." he held his hand open in front of him, using the force to levitate his lightsabre a few inches above the cyborg palm. "...I still got the hang of it." he finished with a smile as he grasped the hilt and clipped it back on his belt.

"Taking out that comms relay is vital. As long as they are receiving signals a distress call so close to the planet will draw a lot of unnecessary attention. I was thinking we could scale the side of the building at nightfall, knock out the guards or distract them, then shut down those towers. We'll have to do it without sounding the alarm, otherwise we'll probably be facing an entire platoon of guards on that roof." he went over the situation. Thankfully the building wasn't entirely smooth and a lot of protrusions stuck out of the sides, making it easy for him to scale the wall...though she might have a bit more trouble than him to scale that quickly.

"How fast will you be able to climb the height of a building like that?" he asked, looking over to her as his hands rested on his hips.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Aurelie observed Hasks display of the force and had a content smile appear on her lips. Her friend seemed to make efforts to get used to the mechanical arm and didn't appear to be very negative of it. The Sith then went over his thoughts about how they should disable the communications. After a short chuckle, she said "You're kinda right on the money there" with a somewhat impressed voice. She looked around, dusk had already set and it would only be a few more hours till nightfall, but they did have a shipment to catch and there were certain logistical problems in waiting for too long. "I hope the dusk will do. We've got a ship to catch." Aurelie thought her joke was pretty funny, seeing as how they were at a major spaceport after all. She couldn't resist laughing a little at her own joke before regaining her composure "Besides, they shower the tower with lights at night, probably some safety regulations. It wouldn't be good if a ship crashed into the tower, would it?" her questions was a little sarcastic as that would actually be wonderful for their plans.

The thief got a feeling that the Sith somehow thought that he'd be able to climb the building quicker than her. She threw a glance at his new arm skeptically before placing a hand on his shoulder. With raised eyebrows and a teasingly concerned expression she joked "I'll be at the top before you've even managed to say Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, buddy. Perhaps you should sit this one out?" With a mischievous grin, the young woman rushed off towards the tower, determined to get a head start over Hask.

It didn't take long before she, and Hask if he cared to follow, arrived close to the root of the tower. A few hours earlier, she had made sure to clog the toilets which the guards used, making sure that they had to run extra far whenever they needed to relieve themselves and as a consequence only four out of the usual five guards could be seen outside the tower, all with mildly annoyed and rather tired expressions plastered on their faces. The girl couldn't help but to let out a small giggle as she saw them standing there in misery.

If Hask had followed, she'd turn to him "Watch this" she said with a playful smirk. She let out her hair of the pony-tail which it was usually held in. With a straight back and raised head, she approached the guards. Greeting two of them by the shake of a hand and the other two with a smile and a nod. More importantly, she'd managed to steal the wallet of the first guard she shook hands with and put it in the pocket of the other. "I'm looking for the shuttle to the cap-.. I mean Coruscant" she said with a heavy Imperial accent. The annoyed guards pointed down the corridor and off she went, returning to Hask in the distance. "This won't take long" The excitement in her voice was clear as she looked over to the guards, just waiting for the drama to begin.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

Hask froze up when she mentioned flying a ship into the tower. Stealing a simple starfighter or freighter would be easy and if it had an ejector seat he could just punch out before impact. He brushed the thought aside, it would be way too high profile.

He turned his head to look at her, with squinted eyes and raised eyebrows. "Oh is that so?" he said sarcastically. "I'll be holding you to that." he said, giving her a playful bump against the shoulder.

He followed her to their destination. For some strange reason, the guards looked utterly dreadful. More so than a guard usually looks. There were four on the roof and two on the ground, right where they wanted to ascend from. She told him to watch and he obliged, staying crouched down behind some crates not too far.

She walked up to the two guards, shaking one's hand. He saw right through her diversion, spotting as she swapped wallets and probably ID's as well between the two as she spoke to them.

In not time at all she came back to him. He knew what she wanted to do, so he waited patiently. After what seemed like 15 minutes none of them budged. Hask grew impatient, reaching out with the force and rustling one guard's pocket a little to get his attention.

It worked. The guard took out his wallet and noticed it wasn't his...it was his buddy's. He spun the other guard around and started arguing with him. In less than a minute they were on the ground, beating the crap out of each other.

"Come on, let's move." Hask said quietly to his partner in crime, quietly moving in past the occupied guards and hiding in a spot next to the wall. He looked at Aurelie, sliding his helmet on and covering himself up. "You gonna climb or what?" he said jokingly to her.

He looked back to the guards, who were still going at it with torn uniforms and all. He looked up the height of the wall, spotting both spots he could use to force-jump up and places for her to hold on to.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Her devious plan didn't go as smoothly as she'd expected. While Aurelie thought she'd have to wait four, perhaps five, minutes, the time went by as the guards still hadn't reacted. She noticed how Hask did something which prompted the fight she had be hoping for to finally break out. "Yeap! Seems like you've still got it" she noted jovially. The thief was quite proud about her well the distraction worked as the two guards went at each other without mercy.

Aurelie gave Hask a nod as he suggested that they better start moving, it did make quite a lot of sense to get going before the guards had come to their senses again. The two saboteurs hastily made their way to the tower which seemed much more daunting from up close. Despite having climbed the walls of buildings before, this one was higher than what she was used to and didn't have a wall on the opposite side to make use of. The young woman did, however, consider herself rather lucky as the artsy design of the spaceports central building provided her with plenty of small ledges and bumps to make use of during the climb. She had brought a rope but didn't like the idea of attaching herself and Hask with it as the likelihood of the person falling dragging the other one with them was larger than the likelihood of the person falling being saved by the one who still managed to hold on.

"Well then" she said in a low and nervous voice as she rubbed her hands together. They had already committed to the plan and there was no point in wasting time being scared. Aurelie smirked as she thought of how similar that thought was to how Hask had been dealing with the loss of his arm - instead of pitying himself, he just dealt with it and adapted "By the stars, I'm starting to think like you" she mumbled before commencing the perilous journey to the top. Instead of worrying, the girl took a leap up the wall of the building, grabbing some decor and started making her way up towards the top. She was, however, careful not to trigger the movement sensitive alarm at the very bottom of the tower. Staying for the briefest of moment, she pointed at some plates below her "If you touch any of those, I'll turn you in" she joked before resuming to the task at hand. Her ruthless mindset certainly made her climb the wall much quicker than if she'd taken her time, but she did come close to slipping or loosing her grip both one and two times on her way up.

The valiant climber soon found herself hugging the wall as she stood on a ledge rather close to the top of the communications tower. She was winded, to say the least, but still had some energy reserves left. Looking to Hask, she raised a finger as close to her mouth as she could reach without falling, signaling for him to be quiet. The girl then pointed upwards and frowned a little as she'd just heard some noise coming from, what she assumed was a boot or a shoe, which idly kicked the ground above them.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

He gave a soft chuckle at her comment, then stayed on the ground for a bit, making sure she was safe in her climb and planning out his own journey.

She gave him a heads up on the pressure plates all over the wall, making climbing for both of them pretty hard. He started his ascension, crouching down and jumping up, using the force to boost his jump. He grabbed hold of a ledge and pulled himself up, crouching down as he checked up on Aurelie who was a few meters above him. Deciding to stay with her, he waited for her to progress further before taking another big jump and landing on an air conditioner sticking out.

It creaked a little under his weight but it held up. Thank goodness for industrial sized machines. He sat patiently, waiting for Aurelie to make her way to the top while making sure no one could see them from below as well as through the windows in the wall.

They were almost to the top, until his co-pilot motioned for him to be quiet. There was someone above them.

Deciding to take a risk, he pushed off the air conditioner and soared through the air, landing right behind the guard. Before the guard could turn around, Hask grabbed hold of his neck, forced him on his knees and grabbed hold of his head.

"You have to go to the refresher." he spoke softly, but confidently, focusing the force and taking full advantage of the man's miserable demeanour. "I have to go to the refresher." the guard said in a zombie-like manner and stood up, walking off to the bathroom.

Hask grabbed Aurelie's arm and pulled her up, pulled her close and hid behind a pillar as a guard walked past, almost spotting the two. He looked down into her eyes, holding a finger in front of his helmet to tell her to be quiet.

The guard casually walked past their corner against some antennas and other objects, only noticing them when it was too late. Hask grabbed him and put him in a headlock, cutting off his air and blood flow. He passed out and Hask laid him down gently in their corner before scoping out the situation...

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Aurelie's heart skipped a beat as the Sith jumped up to the top, revealing his presence to the guard. But, she had learned to trust in his abilities and judgement by now, at least a little - he had, after all, managed to loose an entire arm while she weren't looking. The thief couldn't hear her friend's low voice, but she certainly did hear the manipulated guard's bizarre statement prompting her to look up with an utterly puzzled expression on her face. Soon, she spotted Hask's hand and grabbed it, rather happy about his aid to make her ascent to the top a little quicker, but very much easier. The young woman wanted to thank him, but couldn't get a word out before being pulled in behind a pillar.

They stood very close, if it weren't because of his helmet, Aurelie would hardly be surprised if he could feel her breath's on his skin. She had a certain sense of dread as she saw the guard in her peripheral sight, slowly walking along the opposite side of the pillar. It was only a matter of time before he'd discover them. The thief knew that they'd either be dead or locked up for a good long while if they were caught on top of the Thraxa command tower. Aware that a blast would be noisy enough for the other guards to hear, Aurelie activated her N.E.W.D.A and grabbed the shortened vibroknife that was ejected. In one swift motion, she started to move towards the guard, but soon, the young woman discovered that the Sith had already started dealing with the poor man. She watched as the man chipped for air until he finally ran out of the precious gas. A smile grew on her lips - avoiding having to kill someone was almost always a plus in her book.

This was no time for jokes as she was still rather affected by what she was about to do and with the somewhat limited space, the guards might detect the noise. Knife in hand, the girl looked around nervously and the coast seemed clear with no guards in sight. Trusting Hask to keep an watchful eye for danger, Aurelie sneaked in towards the center part of the platform - wires were about to be cut.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

Hask followed Aurelie to the circuit board where a simple slice of her vibroblade would cut all comms to and from this installation. Only problem was from where they were standing, two guards were sitting by a table and playing pazaak...so much for guard duty.

Hask motioned for her to hold up as he moved to take them out.

The guards were oblivious to the sith's presence. Hask decided to use the force to choke the one guard, giving the appearance that he swallowed something he shouldn't have. The other guard pushed the table aside and attempted to help his buddy to get whatever was stuck in his throat out.

Little did he know...

As this was happening Hask kept walking forward, slowly and silently. Careful to move as little as possible as to not let his armour make a sound. When he reached the two guards from behind, he finally released the poor choking guard. Before the two could recover, the first guard was met with a literal iron fist as Hask decked him in one shot. As the second guard spun around, the pureblood grabbed his still aching throat and smashed him into the ground, knocking him out as well.

He motioned for Aurelie to move up and do her thing. The box they were standing by was fragile, expensive and valuable. Slicing one wire or two could reverse systems, short consoles out and wreak havoc. The two criminals were planning on doing more than just cutting a few wires.

Hask helped to yank open the small door and expose the wiring, allowing Aurelie to destroy their systems.

Before they could begin, a voice broke their near-perfect silence.

"Oi, you're not supposed to be he..." the guard's sentence was cut short by the deep hum and crimson light of a lightsabre blade stabbing through his mouth and killing him instantly. Hask extinguished his blade, watching as the man fell back with lifeless eyes. With his focus completely on what was in front of him, the sith didn't even sense the first guard behind him and acted purely on reflex.

Alarms sounded barely a few seconds later. Looking up, Hask saw a young man staring straight at him from the top of the ATC tower with wide, scared eyes.

Their cover was blown. "Kad dammit Hask"

In one quick motion the sith spun around, pushed a confused Aurelie to the side and slash an 'X' across the board, destroying it.

Blaster bolts started flying towards them as the two made themselves scarce. At least they were close to the edge so Hask holstered his lightsabre, scooped Aurelie up in his arms and jumped off the edge, using the force to slow their descent and land a bit roughly, rolling across the floor close to where they scaled the wall.

He pulled her onto her feet and, as he held onto her, sprinted for an alleyway, disappearing from the entire gathering platoon's view...

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Aurelie stopped dead in her tracks as her companion signaled for her to stop. His timing couldn't be better as she'd surely be discovered if she had continued. The girl watched in awe as the Sith choked the one guy from a distance - how he could just dominate the poor guards without them having a clue as to what happened made her quite happy about being on his team, but also a little scared of the power he possessed in case he ever got mad at her. When the young woman was all but sure that the choked guard was about to die, Hask released him - only to rush forth and knock out the guards conventionally. Normally, she'd have to figure out an elaborate plan of how to get past them, but with Hask, she could simply let him take them out in a matter of moments.

Before the second guard had even hit the floor, Aurelie knew that the fight was over and appeared from her cover. The thief was quick on her feet and had soon arrived at the central station containing crucial technology to keep the comms-system running. She found herself struggling with getting the door open and started digging around in her pockets for a security spike tunneler but soon heard a metallic sound as her friend ripped open the small door. She wanted the comms-system to seem like it had a serious but technological error and started searching for the wires she had planned to cut.

An unfamiliar voice could soon be heard but the young woman kept working on getting the correct wires cut, trusting that her ally would be able to handle the additional guard. But then she heard how the unfamiliar voice was cut off at the same time as the ignition sounds of a lightsaber were heard. Aurelie shivered, even froze, for a few moments - feeling very guilty about the loss of life which they'd caused.

The girl had barely recomposed herself after the death of the guard when the alarms started ringing. Confused she looked back at Hask who seemed to be in far greater control of the situation than her, most likely being more used to these kinds of tense situations than her. She did, however, fully register what happened as Hask swept her to the side and took out all the wires, causing a full and complete system shut-down. The chief then started making his way towards the edge with Aurelie following suit and blaster bolts going in their direction.

Just as she arrived at the edge, Aurelie was very surprised as Hask swooped her up and jumped, granting her the first near-death experience of her life. "Haaaaask!!" she screamed in panic as they made a very quick descent to the ground. She hugged him tight, fully believing that they'd both die at any moment. The deadly fear, panic and adrenaline disguised the pain of an odd laser bolt fired by a guard high up in the tower as something more similar to a tickle as it hit her upper calf. The damage weren't as serious as it could've been, seeing as the laser bolt had to travel a rather long distance, but still, she was shot.

Amazingly, the Sith had managed to dampen their fall enough for both of them to survive it relatively unscathed. Still in quite a bit of danger, she fought off the sudden pain coming from her leg as Hask helped the thief to her feet. There was, however, no doubt in her mind that something was seriously wrong with her leg as she supported herself heavily on her friend as he lead them into an alleyway. Towards the end, it felt more like she was hanging on to him than her actually running herself until the girl finally fell down, landing on her hands and knees next to a large trash container. "Hask" Her voice was weak as she pleaded for help. She didn't know if he'd help her or not, after all, at this moment, she was quite a major liability as her mobility was rather limited, but she have faith in her friend who had not let her down as of yet.

Regardless of whether he turned around to help his co-pilot out or not, she would say "Take the second left, there's a large storage facility in there, very noisy and stuffy" Aurelie's voice was marked by the excruciating pain she experienced as the girl panted heavily while trying to communicate clearly enough for Hask to understand what she said.

@KinkyPrawn

 

[Hask Jen]

He sprinted through the alleyway, trying to lose the small army of guards in pursuit of them. He felt as Aurelie's weight was shifter more and more onto him, until she finally slipped out of his grasp and fell to the floor.

He stopped a few feet from her next to a large garbage bin, as she called out his name. The pain in her voice sent a shiver down his spine. He turned around quickly, seeing her on her knees on the floor. His composure was slipping as he felt the force getting closer and closer to their location. They were in danger and trying to run with her would end with them both having a few holes in them.

His eyes shot between her and the garbage bin a few times before moving over to her. With a grunt he hurled her into the bin, jumped in himself, and closed it up, disappearing from view.

Perfect timing too, because a second later he heard a group of men shouting and running by, searching for the two saboteurs. It was only after they passed that he took note of his surroundings. The bin was pretty empty, giving them plenty of room, but even with his excellent night vision, he had trouble seeing anything. He unclipped his lightsabre, angled it down the length of his body in a reverse grip and ignited it for some light.

He saw that Aurelie was laying right next to them, a nasty scorch mark on her calf and her face a mixture of different emotions and feelings. He could sense it too, her pain, confusion, panic, anxiety, and fear...so much fear.

The smell got filtered out by his helmet quite significantly, but she was surely not so fortunate. Deciding to give her some relief at least, he slid his helmet off with one hand and slid it over her head to relieve the smell for her. The stench overwhelmed him, but better him than her.

He didn't dare speak. They were in too much danger, but after about 15 minutes of laying in the bin, Hask broke the deafening silence. "I think we're clear." he looked at the helmet's visor, knowing he was looking into her eyes. "Hey, you're okay. We're safe now...I would say 'just breathe' but in this thing that's a bad idea." he said softly, kindly and with the terribly inappropriate joke he even gave a toothy grin in an attempt to cheer her up, but it didn't work all that well to no surprise.

He positioned himself better, pulling her into a hug with his right arm. She was distressed and probably traumatized. They needed to move, but with her in this state they were going nowhere for the next few minutes.

"As soon as we're on the Hellion, I'll patch you up. Don't worry. I'm right here." he said softly and compassionately. He extinguished the lightsabre and fished around in his pockets for his commlink. Once he had it he called for his droid to come pick them up for a quick exit.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

The pain came in constant agonizing waves, a massive, merciless flood. The girl was practically whimpering as she stood there on her hands and legs. Despite the pain, Aurelie had a great sense of relief as Hask turned to her. He seemed rushed as he made his way over to her - it was because of their pursuers, naturally, but that was more of an abstract for the young woman now. Most sounds were muffled, sounding almost as if she was under water. The troops boots quickly tapping against the ground, the grunt of her friend as he picked him up - none of it mattered, the only thing she could think about was her leg, her very poor leg. The little light there was in the alley soon disappeared for her completely as Hask deposited her in the large trash container.

The horrible smell would normally make her want to puke but after coughing for a bare moment, she resorted to simply breathing as little as possible. The thief saw how her friend soon joined her in the miserable little space there was in the large container, and then, everything went black as he closed the hatch. She knew that this meant definite danger as the troops were more than likely going to pass by at any moment. The girl bit her lower lip and attempted to stay as quiet as possible.

Lightsabers weren't peaceful weapons. Where a blaster would just make a short noise upon being fired, the Hask's lightsaber violently ignited, drenching the small space with it's crimson red and a low, threatening humming sound. She looked up at the Sith from her fetal position - he shone brightly in the container as the lightsaber followed along his body. The young woman's face was marred by the excruciating pain and fear, any normal Sith would've reveled in it, but not Hask. At least, it didn't seem like he enjoyed it. Her Sith companion even went so far as to sacrifice his own sanity to provide her with his own helmet which effectively filtered out most of the horrendous smell. Her breaths grew larger, more greedy as she could get away with grasping for more oxygen without the smell of rotten food and something which she couldn't quite put her finger on.

After a while, Hask broke the silence. His voice was clear, yet still rather low as he gave her some comforting words and a small joke. A half composed retort floated through her mind, something about making him laugh in the stench, but Aurelie was far from a stage where she'd be joking as the pain kept flowing through her leg like an unstoppable force of nature. The girl leaned in against her saviour's side has he put his arm around her and not long after, he produced some good news. Now, it was only a matter of time before they'd be evacuated in the Hellion.

A petty Sith out for vengeance? A terrorist with a lightsaber? A thousand different theories which could all be possible. Out of all things, Aurelies plot to steal the deflector shields didn't seem like the most obvious reason for the bold attack. With the communications eliminated and the planet's largest spaceport in utter chaos, the plan could proceed.

/END THREAD

@KinkyPrawn