Ask Hunting the Thieves

[Maxims Tionson]

The Tigris was not the worst ship in the Galaxy but Max would be the first to admit that he kept it out of sentiment rather than for it’s technical brilliance. It could hold it’s own in a fight to be sure but he held no illusions that it would be able to take down a squadron of the fighters he had specifically ordered for the Jedi because they were so good. And the chances that it would be able to defeat the pirates with them?

Even if they didn’t use the new ships, there was a chance that what they’d used to capture the ships would be more than he could tank with his lovely little tiger. So fighting them head first wasn’t an option and he lacked the ship-based abilities to be stealthy about it either.

So if his ship couldn’t fight them and win and it couldn’t remain unseen either – he just had to do it himself.

His still unnamed astromech ally whistled at him and Max could hear the doubt in the machine’s little burst of binary. Rolling his eyes a little bit, Max reclined against the side of the ship’s cargo hold as he waited. It would be a stretch to say he was meditating because, really, he wasn’t. He was just waiting for the next stage of the plan.

“Look buddy, you know the plan will work. Just… relax.” He told his astromech with a smile, closing his eye and resting the back of his head against the side of the ship, “The plan worked the last time we were tracking pirates.”

A begrudging series of beeps.

Max snorted in amusement.

“Yeah, ‘sometimes I know what I am doing’ – cheeky nameless little blighter.” He raised a hand, “And NO I am still not ‘giving’ you a name. You’re not a slave or a child so you think of your own name – we are not having this argument with company present.”

Indy was along for the ride with them. Rather than fighting the pirates/gang who had stolen their shipment, Max had instead caused some minor faults in his own ship to make it list in the void without direction. The emergency beacon was active, announcing loudly to anyone using the shipping lanes around here that they were stranded in space with a shipment of cortosis and they were in need of rescue.

No way any criminal worth is salt would pass up such an opportunity.

But they were in a transporter of fighter ships themselves so they were, in a word, slow. Yeah, they were bringing the ships to them but they were doing so at a very luxuriating pace. He blew some air out his nose.

“Anyone want to play cards while we wait?” he grimaced at the beeps, “Hey, I only cheated once. Never let me live it down…”

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

Listening to their banter, she chuckled herself, leaning against the seat with a smile on her lips. It was true, some missions were high stakes and always active, with little rest, but the moments of waiting were ones she actually enjoyed the most. With company even better, really, as it could often be dull or slow going, with little to do. But Max was a good guy to hang out with, and she listened.

At hearing his cheating at cards, she grinned, perking a lavender brow. "You, cheat? I would've never guessed," she smirked, giving him a smirk. "You know what, I'd be game... so long as I get to cheat as well. Might be fun." And Force knew how long they would wait, with bated breath and anticipation.

She wasn't up to waiting in silence for longer than she might have to.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Oh the Force did not like him today did it? He tutted a little bit as his astromech made a big show of doing a quick lap around them as if he was celebrating someone actually believing him. The story of Max cheating at cards had been told numerous times but, due to his reputation, most people just straight up didn't believe his lovely little bucket of bolts. After all, who would believe that straight-laced-grandpa Maxims would cheat at cards?

"It's not really cheating." he said with a roll of his eye, "The little muppet counts cards like most droids do during card games - the difference was that his math was off and mine wasn't. So suddenly I'm the cheater. It's not cheating if no one in the card game is playing by the rules!"

The little smug bucket beeped at him.

"Oh go compute pi or something." he waved the droid off, "And prepare the ship for electronic countermeasures."

There was a pause as the astromech droid just looked at him as though he had gone senile. Rolling his eye again, he held up a hand with a single finger to tell them both to wait a minute. A beep was silenced by him raising the hand higher. The silence stretched on longer for a minute before the ship shook slightly and a hissing sound started.

"There we go." he joked as he drew his saberstaff, "Boarding tube attached and they'll be over to try and steal all of our 'precious cargo' any minute now. You ready Indy? You storm the bridge and I'll storm the cargo containers to secure the starfighters. Com me if you need help."

Spoiler: OOC

The ship we are being 'boarded' by that has our shipment inside it.

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

Oh thank the Force. If she would have had to wait much longer she would have had to play cards... something she hadn't really done with anyone since she went undercover as a Jedi Padawan on Coruscant and had to gamble for herself and her Master to get back to Ajan Kloss.

She smirked at Max, unclipping her lightsaber hilt and holding it away.

It was going to be a challenge she relished. Time to thief the thieves... and she could hardly wait.

"I've been ready since we left that IT office," she chuckled, giving a playful little salute. "You ping me as well if you get pinned at all... I'll meet you on the tail end of this venture."

That being said... they left a perfectly accessible way to access their ship open as they tried to raid their nonexistent stores. She could hardly wait to see their faces.

But for now... she donned her hat, and stalked away.

Time to do some creative maneuvers and get access to that bridge.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

"See you soon then."

Max let her make her own way as he did the same.

Namely by not leaving their own cargo hold. The pirates were bound to send some of their men over to actually secure the ship and if they didn't find anything they would report back to their allies on the ship. So he would make sure they didn't get a chance to reveal that it was a trap.

Nodding to his little astromech friend, Max silently climbed along some of the boxes until he was hanging from the ceiling of the cargo hold. He took a deep breath, using the Force to steady himself as he waited for the right moment to spring the trap. Breathing out slowly, he readied his stun baton rather than his lightsaber for now.

Two men stepped into the cargo hold, looking around them.

"Where's everybody then, droid?"

His astromech beeped a few times and Max sprung the trap, falling from the ceiling and stunning one of the two pirates with his stun baton before he could even turn around. The second one managed to parry but before he could do anything else he shuddered before falling down on his face.

The astromech retracted it's shock arm.

"Good job, buddy, keep these two downed please."

Patting the astromech atop the head, Max took one of the pirate com links and wandered onto their ship instead... left to the nearest cargo container? Off he went then.

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

The docking ring and entrance were easy access, but from there it was all intuition. To the right, it would seem, and ahead. Ships like these were fairly easy to navigate, but she'd have to provide a distraction for Max to escape more easily. And of course, storming the bridge was all well and good... and she could possibly take on this ship for her own.

Oh good grief, that was an awful idea. Footsteps were coming down the hall. She flattened herself against the wall, into a recess, and waited. Voices too; at least two of them. Maybe more.

"...not answering. We gotta check on 'em and---"

Whipping out her blaster, she aimed her first stun shot towards the closer officer. Cursing, the second one reached for his blaster, but wasn't quite fast enough. The third one, however, managed to squeeze off a shot, and she ducked, sliding down to one knee. He aimed another shot that bit a little too close to home... and she took her time.

Measured her final shot.

When it hit, he grunted and fell forward, spasming.

One of the comms began pinging. A tinny voice demanded what the hell was going on.

Whoops. Guess she was about to have more company soon; she had to move fast.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Huh.

Sounded like Indy had managed to kick the hornet's nest... time for him to make a bit of noise himself. Humming a little bit, he entered one of the large storage containers and looked around. There were, as expected, lots of starfighters in her but, surprisingly, few guards. Instead there was a single technician who stared at him.

Max grinned.

"Hi, I believe you are taking inventory of the ships you stole from me?"

The technician dropped his datapad and scrambled to draw his pistol but Max reached out and grabbed him with the Force, slamming him into the nearby wall hard enough to rattle him. Walking up to the dazed technician, he drew the man's pistol before tossing it behind his back somewhere.

"You've not misplaced any, right?" he joked before patting the man on the cheek, "Don't worry - I'll call for backup for you."

He pulled out the technician's com link.

"Hello is that the arsehole who stole my shipment?" he called out down the com line, "Hi! I'm the Jedi Master you thought you could steal from, down in the bottom left container. Just chilling with your technician."

There was silence and he held up a finger to motion for the technician to wait a moment even though he was clearly not about to be going anywhere. Then the com line barked to life again.

"I'm gonna come down there personally and show you why those ships are mine now."

Max rolled his eye.

"Better bring your boys - better if they see you get your arse beaten by an old man who won't even kill you."

He tossed the com link as well before stunning the technician with his stud baton and waiting for the Captain and his men to show up. Hopefully it would leave the way open for Indy.

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

She supposed that life had become a little more difficult, but she had faith in the older Jedi. He was wily, tenacious, and if she tried to make things easier on him she had no doubt she'd never hear the end of it. As it was, it was so much easier to access the bridge.

But she couldn't leave Max all alone for too long. He only had one eye after all.

But more footsteps were coming up down one of the halls ahead; she began to pick up her pace, making her way down to find a computer terminal. If she could slice into the ship, she could lock out the Captain and protect the cargo all in one go. But to find one...

She was just at her wits' end when there was one, tucked away against an access panel. But as she stepped towards it, more guards made their appearance. Two shots and they were down, but how many crew did they have left?

Hopefully enough that Max would have his fun.

Holding her lightsaber up for defense and holstering her blaster, she slipped in the spike. It would take a little while, but she should buy Max some time.

Hopefully.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max waited.

And waited.

And then got bored of waiting and started pacing while he waited.

In the end it probably only took about five minutes before the Captain of the vessel and his crew came storming into the cargo container with him. Smiling indulgently, he let them gather their wits about them and check on the technician he had left slumped over by the wall and went back to waiting, this time waiting to see what they were actually going to do.

He didn't have a lot of faith in them not disappointing him but oh well, he had to keep believing that some people could surprise him for the positive with their intelligence.

"You the Jedi?"

... then again sometimes they were really just that stupid, he supposed.

"I am the Jedi Master, yes."

The captain grinned as he pulled on a pair of... shock boxing gloves?

"I'm gonna deck you in the snozz!"

Max blinked once.

"I'm sorry - that's a new one..."

And then the captain was charging at him swinging his sparking fists like an absolute madman and Max was too busy dodging to question how dumb this man was.

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

Okay, skip the slice, time to takeover and get this karker off their ships.

Hopefully Max had the pirates handled, she was gonna have to handle what remained of the bridge crew.

Sprinting down the narrow hallway, she skidded left and nearly tripped over the slickness of the floors, but powered through. It seemed whatever Max was doing had taken most of the staff with him.

By the time she made it to the bridge, there were three people left, cheering at a plas screen set to view the latest battle.

One human cheered as his captain took a swing, but all grew silent when Indy stepped in, hair a mess, but a bright smile on her lips.

In her hand, she held up her stun blaster.

"Alright kids, show's over. Drop your weapons, or I'll make you drop."

Yeah, not the wittiest line, but she was hot from all the running. What did you expect?

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Trying to figure out what the hell a half-mad person was trying to say or do was not on Max’s agenda for today and yet he was still needing to figure it out. On the fly. While someone tried to punch him with boxing gloves that could stun him. The idea behind them was both dumb as hell and kind of a deranged kind of genius at the same time and he hated that he couldn’t really dislike them.

Because stun boxing gloves should be a bad idea but if they kept on being effective then they couldn’t be called a bad idea and that just rattled his brain. Thankfully none of the swinging fists of his current opponent had managed to rattled his brains yet.

“Stand still so I can clobber ya!” the angered captain demanded, “Slippery bugger!”

Max raised an eyebrow even as he ducked underneath a particularly strong strike that sailed over his head with enough speed to send wind through his hair.

“I’m sorry but I don’t think I’m going to be able to give you what you’re asking for there.” Max responded with a grin, “That sounds like it would hurt and I would much rather avoid any further pain. Aside from the headache that listening to you brings out in me.”

Baiting a man this strong? Strong enough that ‘throwing hands’ was not only a good option but his best option? Some people would call that dumb but Max didn’t give much of a feck. He was having fun taunting the poor young man.

This was probably why Hannibal did it so much.

When the captain charged at him again, Max stepped to the side and stuck his foot out. The captain went tumbling to the ground, rolling and slamming into the side of the container. Max shrugged up at the watching crewmembers who were… passing credits between them?

“Put me down for ten credits on myself to win.” He called out to the betting crewmembers, “What odds can I get?”

He dodged the second charge without even looking, the Force giving him all the warning he needed. Sometimes he forgot that the non-Force sensitives who could keep up with a trained Jedi were very much in the minority and this level of stomping was expected in most fights between a Jedi and a pirate.

 

[Indy Sati]

She smiled cheerily as they set down their weapons, gesturing with the blaster for them to move as she sat down on one of the seats.

"Right. Ping the cargo hold for me, please."

When it was patched through, she cleared her throat delicately before speaking, keeping an eye on her chosen guests.

"Hello. Master, do me a favor and stop teasing him, he's embarrassing the crew. Secondly, hello fellow crewmates. How many of you like credits? I imagine quite a few. How many of you like your freedom and are just along for the ride? Mhm, thought so. Tell your captain to surrender and give us what we need, and I won't patch our ship to jump into the nearest star."

A lie, but only Max would know that lie.

"Surrender, and you keep that which is most valuable to you. Sound fair?"

The comm clicked off... and then turned on again.

"Oh, and that's fifteen on the Master. I'll give you ten minutes for an answer, please make it quick."

She then shut off the comms again, and eyed the staff.

"...So how many of you are good at cards?"

One of the males, a Human she reckoned, glared daggers at her. "You mean that, back over the comms?" All three seemed tense, like they were willing to jump her. She stared at them a moment... then cracked a smile.

"Nope." At seeing their tense postures relax, she merely shrugged. "Your Captain does seem a bit like an ass anyways, yeah? So let's make him sweat for a bit in the meantime. Cards, anyone?"

She grinned as they stared at each other... then reluctantly began to sit down with her, and she beamed. "Excellent. Now, I recommend a good hand of Sabacc.."

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max had decided he was ready to end it long before Indy had come over on the coms but that was fine. What was not fine was that, if anything, her announcement had managed to light a fire under the Captain and he was getting angrier and angrier. He was, like most angry fighters, getting sloppier too but that wasn't the point.

He was a danger to himself and others like this.

Letting out a breath, Max fixed the man with a stare. His early good cheer was gone and he looked the man in the eyes with his sole eye and narrowed it slowly.

"Enough fun and games now; either you surrender now or I will be forced to stop you."

There were some chuckles and jeers from the peanut gallery and the captain gave his own answer by way of spitting at Max and making a quick jab for his face. Flowing to the side of the attack, Max scowled slightly at the man for making what he was about to do necessary. One blade of his lightsaber staff ignited and flashed out quickly as he spun his blade as he stepped past the man.

The captain fell forward, screaming, as his brain managed to catch up to the fact that Max had cut through both of his hamstrings with his lightsaber in a second. Extinguishing the blade, he clipped his saber back onto his belt and turned to face the downed captain. Catching a wild strike at the forearm, Max pulled with one hand to force the arm to fully extend.

He then thrust with his other hand, snapping the captain's arm at the elbow brutally, causing yet more screams and a growing silence from the watching crewmembers. Max, impassive and clinical in his movements, grabbed the captain by his hair and dragged him over to a set of metal steps.

"Bite the step."

Murmurs rose from the crewmembers who watched as their broken captain shook as it opened his mouth and placed his teeth against the metal step. Max raised his right foot and rested it, gently, on the back of the man's skull. He stared up at the crewmembers for a few seconds without saying anything before speaking slowly.

"Throw down your weapons or I'm going to crush his skull like an egg." he instructed them, tone cold and unflinching, "You're pirates. You've done the same to others before - don't think I'd lose a wink of sleep over doing this to you so save yourselves the bother and just give up now."

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

A pale-faced hush settled over the crowd there. At first, no one moved. No one even seemed to be able to breathe. But first, one weapon thudded to the ground. Then others, until all weapons fell. Hands went up.

Indy glanced over to the console, and frowned.

However, words would have to wait until later.

"Game over," she spoke softly, then rose.

"Stall the ship, and come with me." Waiting until the crew rose, she paced down herself. "Enough, Master."

Her voice was soft, but her golden eyes firm.

"We've got what we need, so let's go."

No point sticking around for much longer; the time for games was up.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max didn't need talking down because he had never actually reached the peak of anger that people seemed to think he had. Beneath his stern expression he didn't actually feel much of anything aside from some mild frustration that he had to pull out this deception to end hostilities without including lethalities. It was all an act, one built around the fact that some people didn't respond to the kind words of a Jedi Master.

They didn't let go of their weapons because of his compassion so he had found a different way.

"Everyone into the spare cargo container." he instructed the defeated pirates, still acting cold and detached, "We will lock you inside and drop you off for processing at the closest planet."

With them locked away he just kind of stared at the door to the container for a minute as he allowed the act to fade and instead he just resting his forehead against the cold metal. He closed his eye and just allowed himself the freedom to breathe, slowly and deeply at his own pace.

He didn't remove his head from the door as he spoke to Indy.

"I will not kill." he told her quietly, "But sometimes I... sometimes I have to pretend that I could do it. That I would do it. Tell me Indy - have you killed anyone?"

He tilted his head to look at her.

"Am I on a slippery slope to finally doing what I've managed to spend my entire life avoiding?"

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

She opened the container for them, and watched them all shuffle in. She didn't talk, not at first. But she took her time coming back to him, and put her hands on her hips. Letting his words sink for a moment before answering herself.

"I've never killed," she spoke quietly, sighing. But she stared at him. Really and truly did.

She stepped over, and paused before setting her hand on his shoulder. A faint grin touched her lips.

"Max. Out of everyone I've known, you've had ample opportunity to ever kill deliberately. Even when there were times it would have been convenient to do it, you haven't. You're not on a slippery slope... but if you feel like you are, I hope you feel confident in telling me or someone you trust. I don't think you are though."

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He ran a hand through his hair and thought about how much his eye itched - not the one that was still there either. Every now and then he felt his absent eye itch or ache and he had to stop himself from rubbing at something that was no longer there. Sometimes he thought it might be because it was tied to his mood since it often acted up when he was stressed about something - but more often than not empirical evidence had shown that it was random.

There weren't handy signs in the Galaxy to guide your hand even when you were a Jedi.

Turning to her when she placed a hand on his shoulder, he gave her a soft little smile of his own as he listened to her. Sometimes it was nice to know that someone had faith in you, especially when your own faith had been shaken. That Indy still felt so strongly about his moral fortitude actually helped him rather a lot.

"Thank you, Indy." he squeezed the hand on his shoulder gently, "It means a lot that you feel that way, that you see me that way. Once upon a time someone told me that if you're having doubts about if you're doing good then it usually means you're still a decent person."

He chuckled.

"The arseholes tend to just not worry."

@Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

She chuckled at his words, giving his shoulder one last squeeze before releasing. "Wise man. I might have to remember that. And if you no longer have doubts... I'll be sure to try and stick around to knock some sense back into your head." Giving a cheery little wink, she then jerked her head to their prize.

"Let's grab what we came here for and go; I'm dying for some decent food and a real, hot bath."

Yet despite the buoyancy of her words, there was a feeling down her spine. A feeling of foreboding.

Their adventures weren't really over yet.

@Nefieslab

//End thread?