Ask The Crossing Of Paths

Ke Eoto

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Jedi Order
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Jedi Padawan

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@Tenagra,

Outer Rim,
Unknown Planet,

Gravel and coarse vegetation cracked under his feet as Ke Eoto made his way over the grim landscape of a barren and ashen world. He was sent to the forgotten planet in the Outer Rim on his first solo assignment, no master or higher ranking Jedi around to guide his choices, just the alien padawan and his instincts on how to proceed. His task was to track down the location of a local small-time pirate band operating off of this unnamed planet, or its system at least, with a minuscule enough presence that Sector Rangers did not divert any resources to deal with them yet. He was to capture their leader and turn him in to the local law enforcement agency, bounty hunting guild representative, or a Sector Ranger, whichever was the most convenient as long as it would unsure that the small pirate cell was left without any leadership. Although the assignment was qualified as low-risk, he was not without a backup should things go south.

The alien Jedi rounded a bent in the gravel path, coming to a clearing within a forest of dead trees to which multiple gravel and asphalt roads lead to. The nearest town was a considerable distance away, although the spot he trekked to was not deserted. The clearing was home to a tavern of sorts, a meeting point for travelers seeking some rest, nourishment, and indulgence to various vices. According to a string of leads he followed, it would also be a spot where he would be able to find one of the pirate group members, and hopefully in turn, the location of the pirate hideout.

Like many of his order at the time, the very noticeably alien padawan did not wear any of his traditional robes or tunics, or even brought a lightsaber with him. Instead, the Blood Carver, a being of elongated, thin limbs that contained one more joint than a human, wore a black bodyglove over his body covered in chitinous plates. A layer of armored plasteel plates adorned the bodyglove that did little to hide his alien, slender physique, a suit that made him look like any other alien mercenary that would attend such a place, especially considering the long-barreled cycler rifle he was holding in his hands, and the sheathed vibrosword belt hanging off of his side, swaying lightly to his movements.

He pushed off again, following the gravel path to the entrance of the tavern.
 

Venara Tabbith

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The tavern was starting to fill with sentient life. Few had acknowledged the small Ubese girl that padded to a corner booth, one with a view of the entire dining room. She had been there for a few hours, sipping drinks through a straw on her breathing mask. The after work hours had arrived and locals from the village nearby streamed in. A number of the patrons of this watering hole were not locals. Armed men entered, sitting in booths that seemed to have been reserved for them.

Venara considered her options. She had memorized the appearance of the man she was after. Tall, broad shoulders, cleft chin. He had a synthetic eye that glowed the same color as his natural one, blue. The bounty hunter knew that this man frequented this tavern, had seen his ship land on the outskirts of the village that morning. It was only a matter of time before he revealed himself. Either she would wait until her mark arrived, had a few drinks and then left his posse to either relieve his bladder or sleep for the night, or else she would have to head to his ship and ambush him. At the starship landing site, the target would have all of the advantage. Here, in public, assuming she could get the drop on him, she could press her own advantage.

Time dragged on, and Venara grew impatient. She considered leaving the bar, but was pleased to see her mark enter the tavern at that moment. He called out to a table where some mercenaries sat, who called out in reply. Just having a cold one with the boys. He was dressed in a thin white shirt and his dark blue pants had seen better days. He had a pack of death sticks tucked into one of his rolled up sleeves. Stubble had started to grow on his face. Venara tried to look uninterested. The target sat with his friends and they conversed. Venara was too far to hear what they spoke about. It didn't matter. She just needed to get some alone time with the man she had been waiting for, to make him gush what he knew into Venara's eager ears. Then the hunt could truly begin. This man was but a stepping stone to much more valuable prey. She merely needed to wait.
 

Ke Eoto

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Jedi Order
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Jedi Padawan

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Manufactorium
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It seemed that everything was going to go according to Venara's plan, more or less at least, and the job would be no stranger than any other.

A tall, slender shadow crossed over the windows of the bar, heralding an arrival of a new patron before the door to the establishment hissed and slid open, revealing a skeletal silhouette. Ke Eoto strode inside smoothly on elongated legs, his thrice-jointed limbs keeping his movements graceful as he tilted his head back and forth, scanning over the bar, long fingers twitching lightly over the long cycler rifle he held in his hands, until his helmet came to stop in the direction of Venara's mark.

Few patrons took notice of the new arrival at first; he wasn't the only non-human in the room and much like the other patrons he had an appearance of yet another mercenary. Heads begun to turn however when the alien pushed himself off to make his way towards the group of thugs and pirates, including Venara's mark, that sat in their own corner of the bar. He had no markings on his armor, no symbols of allegiance, but it was pretty clear that he did not belong with them.

As he drew nearer, the pirates and mercenaries turned their attention to him, few of them reaching for their blasters as they took notice of the long rifle the alien was holding. The new arrival did not stop or even slowed down, even as one of the more burly hired guns stood up, towering even above the already tall alien, and got into his path to block his way. The malicious grimace on his face clearly showed that the alien was not welcomed there.

Ke Eoto did not flinch however, without skipping a beat he raised his left hand off of the rifle, waving it before the burly pirate as some unheard words were uttered to him. The armed man's expression suddenly changed and he nodded eagerly, broad smile creeping over his face as he barked out loud enough for other patrons to hear,

"Yea I'm glad you're here!"

And stepped aside to clear the way for Ke Eoto towards their table, even pulling out a chair for him so that the alien could join them. His reaction drew confused looks from his companions, brows knitting, eyes traveling back and forth between the two, unsure what to make of the situation and keeping their hands close to their weapons.

The alien patron sat down across the table from Venara's Mark, shifting on his seat to make himself comfortable with the rifle over his lap as the pirate looked at him with a mix of confusion and anger. The pirate opened his mouth to say something, but the alien raised his hand to him before any words sound out, muttering something unheard to other patrons except those by the table. The pirate's expression changed as well, grinning suddenly and reaching over to grasp the alien's raised hand eagerly in order to shake it. The pirate begun nodding and looking to others he called for drinks, his companions kept looking to them confused, not moving, until the alien's hand hovered in their direction as well and more words were whispered.

Soon enough, their blasters were left in their holsters, and the alien arrival was treated as one of their posse. The pirate pulled the pack of deathsticks from his sleeve, taking one out and offering it to the alien. Ke Eoto raised his hand once more, declining and whispering again, causing the pirate to crash the deathstick pack in his grasp and throw the one between his lips to the ground as he grinned and eagerly proclaimed,

"You're right! I did quit!"
 

Venara Tabbith

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Venara had been observing the bar, keeping an eye on her soon to be informant without tipping him or his friends off that she was doing so. Then a tall spindly limbed alien lurched into the bar. Despite being armored head to toe, which made him seem more of the mercenary crowd, the alien immediately caught Venara's attention. This guy was definitely one of the more bizarre looking ones. He was humanoid, but he had extra joints in his limbs, and he had a really long nose from the shape of his mask. Maybe he was trying to have his helmet emulate some kind of creature?

Evidently the merc found what he was looking for, because he turned towards where her man was sitting with his friends. Apparently they were not friends because weapons were being reached for and the biggest thug got in the path of the alien merc. The merc started waving his hand around and the thug was suddenly all smiles, even pulled a chair out for his pal. The fact that the other pirates were uneasy meant that something strange was going on. It was possible that the alien merc had conveyed some kind of code phrase to reveal his identity, Venara was familiar with such things.

The alien did the same thing with her man, and apparently he was aware of the code as well, because his demeanor completely changed as well. When the cyborg destroyed his deathsticks, though, Venara began to wonder what was going on. He hadn't done it like he was fearful of retaliation from someone superior to him. He had done it happily, as if it had been his idea. Either he was a very good actor, or something else was at play here, something Venara could not yet perceive. Perhaps some kind of device would allow one to scramble the mind of a person in close range. A chemical sprayer of some kind? Maybe they were being sprayed with some kind of substance that would make them suggestible. Deciding she wouldn't be able to figure this out from her table, Venara stood up and moved over to the bar. She ordered another drink, and started to listen in at the most interesting table in the bar.
 

Ke Eoto

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Jedi Order
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Jedi Padawan

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The alien wasn't idle at the pirate table, nor did it seem like he was there on a purely social call as he stopped the informant shortly when the criminal attempted to get into some prolonged anecdote about his most recent raids. The alien whispered something out curtly which caused the pirate to exclaim as Venara begun to make her way over towards the bar,

"The boss?"

Before nodding eagerly and leaning in towards the alien to continue on in a much more hushed voice. Soon the pirate produced a little holodisk and offered it to the alien. By the time Venara was sitting by the bar their conversation was barely audible above the noise and chatter of the tavern, what she could make out was the noise of a projector being active, although the actual map it showed was hidden behind their bodies, and the pirate's words,

"There you'll find him."

The alien nodded in turn, leaned back towards the pirate as well as he studied the map before deactivating it and stashing the projector away at his belt. Perhaps it was because his focus was now on the informant delivering the necessary information, perhaps it was because the alien felt safe in his current position with the other pirates around now going back to their usual business and either assumed he was one of them or ignored him, perhaps it was that after all he was not as experienced as a full Jedi yet, but the alien did not notice when the larger pirate thug behind to look around in confusion as if realizing something before focusing on the alien and knitting his brows.

Suddenly, the informant's exposition was interrupted by the thug stalking over to them from his spot nearby in quick, charging movement, eyes fixed on the alien with intent. The alien turned on his seat, sensing the hostile emotions directed at him from the pirate body guard and raised his hand towards him. Before suggestion could be cast again, the pirate thug swung his arm and smashed it into the alien's torso, stopping his gesture and sending him sprawling down to the ground,

"No!"

The pirate thug called out loudly, both in a battle cry and to deafen himself to the alien's words. Despite the sudden cries of alarm and to stand down from other pirates, he produced his blaster from a holster. Other pirates did so as well, jumping from their seats in confusion. The alien sprawled and twitched on the ground, spinning about in search for his cycler rifle, the weapon fallen to the ground some distance away from him, too far to reach. Still he extended his arm out towards the rest of the bar, seemingly for anything useful to grasp on, yet there was nothing he could take a hold of as the thug stood over him and aimed his blaster down.

Blaster shot rang out through the bar along with the terrible, organic sound of flesh being singed and ripped apart by the bolt's impact, followed by the smell of burned flesh.

The thug stood dumbfounded with a blaster hole in his chest, burnt through his rudimentary armor, the other pirates looked in the direction the shot came from. On the opposite side of the bar, one of the other unaligned mercenaries sitting with his own band was looking in their direction, as surprised and confused as them, his hands scrambled to his side, finding his blaster still in its holster, swaying lightly as if an invisible hand just grasped and aimed it remotely, burnt fabric on its tip smoldering at the hole from which the bolt flew out of.

There was a second of complete silence and tension as the pirates looked to other patrons, weapons in hands, before the mercenary stood up, about to try and beg for reason, to explain his confusion and that he didn't fire at them. It was too late however, the bar erupted with the sound of blasters firing, instantly devolving into an armed brawl.
 

Venara Tabbith

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The alien mercenary had come for business. He immediately started questioning his new friend about his superior. Venara was surprised that someone else was interested in the same man as she was. She heard a hologram projector activate, which intrigued her. She had never used one before. They were very interesting bits of tech to anyone interested in such things. Unfortunately, she could not hear what was being said at the table anymore, nor see what was being looked at. She assumed it was a map, based on what her mark said.

The alien merc kept the map data, stowing it into one of his belt pouches. Venara began to worry. The alien was an unknown quantity, but he had the information she needed. She doubted her informant had another copy of that map. Should she stick to her plan and squeeze the info out of her mark, or pursue the new manipulative target?

Her thinking was interrupted when the large thug that had been placated originally shouted in defiance and struck the alien mercenary. On the ground, and with its weapon out of reach, it was certain that he was about to die. A blaster bolt fried the large thug from across the room. The origin of the bolt was a blaster still in its holster, a hole had been burned through the bottom of the leather. Venara's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen. She felt the adrenaline kick in, and time seemed to slow down. The man with the blaster malfunction stood up, and began to speak, but he was cut off as, weapons in hand, many of the bar patrons began firing at each other.

Venara vaulted over the bar and crouched down just as the blaster bolts started to fly. She drew her own blaster, and decided to wait for the sound of blasterfire to die down before peeking over her cover. She saw the bartender pull a blaster from his tunic, but a stray blaster bolt struck him before he could take cover. The man went down hard. She could see a wound on his right shoulder. He cried out in pain as smoke drifted off of him. Turning her attention back to listening, Venara almost immediately had to dart out of the way of two mercenaries that tumbled over the bar top. Venara ended up sprawled out on top of the bartender and twisted around to get a better look at the two fighters. They were grappling with one another, one with a club in his hand. Venara shot the one with his back to her, the bolt striking true. As he collapsed, the other merc's eyes widened and he wrestled to pull his blaster from its webbing. Venara shot him before he could draw.

With three smoking corpses and one small Ubese girl, the area behind the bar was getting a bit crowded. Venara was sitting on one of them. She leaned over the bartender's face to check if he was still breathing. He groaned in pain as she shifted her weight on his torso, and she decided he was still alive. Venara rolled off of the man, and pulled a bacta spray from her belt pouch. She tugged on the bartender until his blasted shoulder was facing her, then applied the spray. She spotted a table cloth draped over the counter. She pulled it down towards her. Several dishes came down with it, and glass shattered and scattered across the floor. Unperturbed, Venara wrapped the tablecloth around the bartender's shoulder wound. She wound it tightly, and hoped that she had done the right thing. She had never actually field dressed an injured person before, just practiced on her homeworld. He hadn't tried to shoot at her after all. Venara once again listened for the blaster fire to quiet down. Hopefully she would be able to salvage something useful from the mess.
 
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