Apex of the Vacuum [Invite]

[Gambler]

Silence. Complete and utter silence. A silence so quiet that it was deafening. So quiet that it sometimes played tricks on the mind. The countless planets and stars just visible in the distance sometimes appeared closer. And sometimes there were shadows. Shadows that moved. Was it the mind playing tricks on you? Or was there something out there? Something dark. A true predator. A bright flash of incandescent light burst into existence as a medium freighter rumbled out of hyperspace. Its dull plating shimmered softly in the light exerted by the ship's many hued lights. For a moment it sat there, unmoving and unnaturally still. The only sound was the ticking of the hyperdrive and the whirring of the slowing engines. And then everything went black. Except for a few dim lights scattered across the outer surface of the freighter. Emergency lights.

Inside, a man with platinum blond hair tied behind his head in a ponytail to keep it out of his face, sat in the cockpit. His hand flicked the ignition. Once. Twice. Nothing. The ship didn't start. The hyperdrive didn't click. It was eerily quiet once more. Except for the breathing of two beings. One was that of the platinum blond man. The other steady gasps of breath belonged to something else... a shadow against the darkened cockpit. A friend. Maybe. The dim light from the distant stars barely allowed a flash of white. A smile? The man was certainly in no position to smile. His freighter had broken down in the middle of space. The freighter was a cargo freighter for some minor trading company and the goods it contained would be worth quite a sum to the right people.

But the man flicked on the emergency transmission. Because of course, even in the worst possible situation there was always some way to get a distress signal across. The man checked his watch. It was almost time... After almost a minute of waiting he finally spoke up. "Our freighter... broken... middle of... nowhere to go... please come soon... Aliac Jaid... trader," static filled the message as if something was wrong with the transmission. The man frowned at what he heard when he played it back. He nodded once though and sent it out, using the long range sensors for greater distance. For of course someone would hear it and come check up on him to help him out. The man smiled a thin smile. A smile of relief maybe? What else could it be? Nothing. Just relief that someone would be coming.

 

[Alex!]

"I'm on my way. I'm Vilxi Okaxer, but just call me Cype.. Give me your coordinates, sir," said Vilxi.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"....Died out at.... Uh.... Co-ordinates are.... Transmitting. Home in.... Beacon." A second voice crackled over the comms, this one distinctly female. It was the man's co-pilot, a very attractive young Mashi Horansi female clad in an all-black uniform - likely something she had bought off a military surplus dealer because she couldn't afford better - who had probably hitched a ride with him and had decided to stick around rather than saunter off on her own adventures. "Well, I hope he gets the message and homes in on our beacon. I don't wanna die floating around like a pile of space garbage." She muttered, glancing over at her copilot as she walked out of the shadow-shrouded comms area she had been standing in a moment prior. "I'll go get the airlock ready for him." She added in, as she left the freighter's cockpit and started for the airlock.

 

[Gambler]

The man looked up at his companion, watching as the shadow left the cockpit. "Yeah, get ready. I'll get the rest of our stuff ready and see if I can get the engines running," he said in a slithering tone. The man stood up to his full height and stretched, cracking his back. He flexed his right arm with the cybernetic enhancements. Damn, but he still wasn't used to those yet. His eyes were pale, so pale that they appeared silver with a small pupil in the dim light. He went behind his chair and picked up a case that looked like it would house an instrument before walking down to the control bay. He took out a small cloth and began shining the black object inside the case. Everything was ready. Vixi only needed to come on board.

 

[Alex!]

"Sir, open your hanger. My ship is pretty small, it's a Firespray," said the concerned Vilxi.

 

[Gambler]

A smile crept onto the lips of the platinum blonde man. Or at least his lips turned upward in what appeared to be a smile. It could have easily been a snarl or a sneer. Almost instantly he tapped a sequence on the console, opening the airlock and letting Vixi in. Once Vixi landed inside, the man tapped another sequence, sealing the airlock. And then with the subtlest touch of a button he closed the blast doors. "You never know what could be lurking out there in space. Maybe what ate up our engines," he remarked casually, flipping something through his fingers. It was a sniper shell, but there was something wrong with the tip. Like there was something inside it. But that didn't matter. The blonde man smiled again, this time at Vixi. "Hey, mind stepping down so you can give us some help?" His tone was clipped and curt. Not exactly rude, but definitely not endearing either.

 

[Alex!]

"What do you prefer me using? A fusion cutter, or giving you a new power coupler for the engine?," Vilxi asked, suspicious.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"We might need both." That female Mashi Horansi replied, as she popped up at the front of his ship, a pleasant smile stretched across her muzzle. A red leather collar was looped about her neck, and her torso was covered with a skintight black armorweave vest. "C'mon down and I'll show ya what the problem is. I'm not much of a mechanic, but it looks like whatever nommed on our engines also fried the power relay. One of the converters is welded into place, we'll probably have to cut it out with a torch." She explained, planting her hands on her hips and continuing to smile up at the pilot known as Vilxi.

 

[Alex!]

Vilxi followed down the dark hallway, suspecting anything.

 

[Gambler]

The blonde man counted to sixty, waiting until the footsteps of the Hutt traitor faded away. Of course, he didn't hear Ayda move, but then again, she was probably a bette hunter in terms of stealth than he was. Ever so slowly, the man took out a grenade. Not just any kind of grenade. A special EMP designed to effect everything in a small radius for at least ten minutes. Vixi wouldn't trouble them that long. Pulling the pin, the man threw the grenade ay Vixi's ship. It hit and exploded with a sizzling noise that took everything inside the small fighter offline. The man laughed, knowing that Vixi wouldn't hear the quiet noise of the EMP. "Courtesy of the Hutt Empire, traitor. I suppose Jaiden Xeraphim does get to be the arbiter of destruction once more," he said to the empty room.

He moved fast, assembling his composite sniper and inserting the nitrogen tipped shell rapidly. Once he had that finished, Jaiden stealthily walked into the engine room. As he had hoped, there they were. He nodded to Ayda and lifted his gun silently. Finger on the trigger, he spoke to Vixi with command deep in his voice. "Don't turn around. If you move, I shoot and you die. And trust me, I don't miss. Especially at point blank range," could his tone have been more hateful and satisfied if he tried? Not really. He nodded ever so slightly to Ayda. Almost done. There was no way for Vixi to escape. If he made any movements, Jaiden would shoot him with the nitrogen tipped bullet which would explode on impact. Wasn't space ironic? And the best part was that no one would ever know that they were there or what had transpired. Pure genius.

 

[Jiang Winters]

When Ayda heard Jaiden's voice, she knew it was time. She whipped around and produced a palm-sized dart gun from her thigh cargo pocket and leveled it at Vilxi. Unlike a lesser assassin, she did not waste her time with words or a bragging statement; she squeezed the trigger, sending a single high-velocity dart whooshing through the air towards Vixli's torso. The dart was specially designed to pierce any clothing article - even armorweave - and was loaded with enough tranquilizer to knock out a bantha, though it was also so safe that it would not cause damage to Vilxi's body... Unless blacking out and dropping like a rock could be called damage.

 

[Alex!]

Vilxi fell to the floor, letting out a gasp.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Ayda grinned and safetied the dart pistol, then approached the unconscious Vilxi and used her cybernetically enhanced strength to heft him up in a fireman's carry. Even then, he still weighed quite a bit, as it was all dead weight. "Good god, this guy needs to lose weight..." She complained to herself, as she carried him towards a cargo bay just outside the engine room, and lugged him to a durasteel x-shaped exam table that was bolted and welded to the floor in the center of the otherwise empty room. She dumped the hapless man onto the table and proceeded to clamp him down to it with heavy durasteel shackles, including one that went across his throat and another that crossed his chest. Combined with the wrist and ankle shackles, the bindings effectively immobilized him.

He wouldn't be going anywhere soon. Period. Even the force would be unable to aid him, as the locks were both magnetic and mechanical, and would require a very complex 10-digit alphanumeric code and a key to unlock. Once he was secure, Ayda turned to Jaiden - who had accompanied her to the room, just in case - and spoke up. "I think it's safe to say he isn't going anywhere. He shouldn't even be waking up for another five hours. I'll go get the ship started on a course back to Nal Hutta. Try not to do anything lethal to him. The boss wants him alive."

 

[Alex!]

When unconscious, Clawdites cannot control their transformation abilities. As Vilxi was a Clawdite, he suddenly transformed himself from human form to Cathar form.

 

[Gambler]

"Not just yet. I'm going to go check out his ship. The systems should be up and running by now. Let's see where he has been, shall we?" Jaiden stated more than queried, turning his back to the traitor Vixi. Yeah, Venator wanted him alive. Be damned if they went through all of this trouble so the boss man could kill him. 'I'll just take an arm or two... maybe even get Ayda to help with an acid treatment,' he mentally laughed, walking out of the room, no haste in his stride. Vixi wasn't going anywhere anytime soon if ever at all. Jaiden was slightly surprised at Vixi's transformation, but it didn't really concern him. Clawdites had to keep their mass and size the same at all times. So there was no need to worry about him changing into a rancor and breaking out of those restraints. Besides, even if he could, he would rip his arms off in the process.

Shaking his head, Jaiden sauntered back down to the airlock. As he had thought, Vixi's ship was back online. Seeing no need to hurry, Jaiden jumped into the cockpit and began digesting the informations of planets visited. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He asked the air, intruiged. Apparently, Vixi had opted to join the Shade Order and left the coordinates for their base in his navi computer. "Fool," he laughed, debating whether or not to tell his companion. In the end, Jaiden decided to tell Ayda. What could it hurt?

"Hey, Ayda, come take a look at this. Quite the ride we have here." He laughed, calling to Ayda over the com link. "Take a look where she's been."

 

[Alex!]

Vilxi again transformed to a Wookiee, then a Twi'Lek, and finally a human again.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Ayda arrived at Vilxi's ship in a matter of moments, and quickly clambered up and clung to the ship's hull where she'd be looking over Jaiden's shoulder. "The boss'll be happy as a clam when he sees this." She purred, patting Jaiden on the shoulder and giving him a rare smile of satisfaction. "Nice work, Jaiden." She said before hopping back off the ship. "Now, I'm gonna go back and check on our clawdite passenger. Set the ship's autopilot to take us back to base then come back to the cargo bay with a blowtorch and medical kit, would you?" She asked. With that done, she disappeared into the shadows of the bay, and made her way back to the cargo room.

She re-entered again, and approached the side of the table, where Vilxi was still quite securely strapped down. He would come out of it soon enough, when she pumped him full of a chemical agent that would bring him out of the tranq-induced stupor.

 

[Gambler]

Jaiden laughed oh so evilly at Ayda's instructions. Yeah, this was going to be fun. He went to the cockpit and engaged the autopilot sequence. Hmm... damn, they would be arriving in three hours. 'I knew we should have intercepted him planet-side. More time for fun that way,' he sighed wistfully. Running a hand through his tied back hair, Jaiden looked around for a blowtorch. He also grabbed a couple of other things as well. Serrated knife, a a syringe filled with some more goodies, and some acid. Oh yeah, this was going to be his best day after his years of service with the stupid humans and Alsakans. Returning to Ayda he placed what she asked for down and drew out the serrated knife. "Ladies first. Don't put him in too much pain though, I still want a few cracks at him," he laughed wickedly. And then his face lit up as if remembering something. "And get the poker. Remember our friend the nutcracker? I say we now call him the castrator," how could any one man sound so cruel? Oh, but it was fun.