Ask Wild Bantha Chase

[Lucien Adami]

Lucien was glad when the Padawan announced his arrival. After a long mission filled with crazy conversations, dead ends, and a heck of a lot of travelling, there was finally a prospect for some action. The Jedi Knight sized up the patrolling gang members, feeling the beginnings of an adrenaline rush come over him.

"Of course. The plan is to gather any mission-sensitive information that might be inside the building, and there's a number of ways we could make our move. I've circled the premises a few times and while it's well-guarded, the architect definitely placed a priority on aesthetics in favour of security. On the East side of the building, around two thirds of the way up the wall there's a ventillation exhaust that'd fit either of us, if a little tightly. We'd have to remove the grille, but that should be easy work with a screwdirver - I always keep the old saber repair tools in my utility belt." Lucien said.

He felt his heart beat a little faster, excited for their upcoming infiltration attempt. "There's also an exterior door that leads directly into the kitchen. We might be able to pull something creative there, but I haven't quite thought that far yet. Either way we'll need to work together to avoid alerting the guards - one of us will have to draw their attention while the other breaks in."

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

There were more options than Quin had been expecting, and that was a good thing! Master Adami mentioned that they would just need a distraction first, and thankfully, Quin was great at those.

“I’ve got those guards covered. Just let me know how long you need. I’ve already switched to an earpiece, so whatever you say, they won’t hear a thing.” He grinned. Master Adami wasn’t the only one who was starting to get pumped for this. He would give the Jedi knight as much time as he needed to get ready, and when he was in position, Quin made his way over to where a couple of the Outriders’ speeders were parked.

“Wow, these look so cool! I’ve always wanted one of these!” he exclaimed loudly, looking over at a group of guards that were just passing by. They turned and, seeing him with their speeders, began to shout. Some of them were already on their way over. Quickly turning on the speeder just as they moved to stop him, Quin hopped on and drove off in the opposite direction, away from where Lucien was. He turned back his head, waving to his pursuers, who were just starting to get on their own speeders. He’d gotten the attention of almost all the Outriders milling outside the building.

“Ha HA! Come and get- WHOA!” The Padawan turned around and saw that he had nearly rammed his speeder straight into a fountain and swerved aside in the nick of time. Behind him, he could near the Outriders starting to catch up, but he made sure to stay in view of the building just so he wouldn’t lose the attention of the others, zigzagging between the decorations out in front.

Now that he had their attention, all that he had to do was to keep it long enough for Master Adami to make it inside.

Spoiler: Roll

Rolled 14 for distraction success

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

The young Padawan casually walked over to a set of the Outriders' parked speeders. Before Lucien knew what was happening, the teen had already grabbed one of them for a joy ride. He took off like a hungry mynock, leaving the startled Jedi Knight standing at his vantage point, mouth slightly agape. Well that's one way of doing it. A group of the gang members made chase and all of the speeders zooming past seemed a heck a lot more capable than the ones that Jovan had provided the two Jedi earlier. Oh sithspit, the speeders! I doubt they're still where we parked them, rough as that part of town looked...

There was no time to dwell on the state of Jovan's questionable speeders, he had a job to do. Leaving the safety of his vantage point, Lucien snuck over to the Eastern wall of the Outrider headquarters. His approach was textbook - unassuming and silent, he practically glided up to the building, evading the sight the few guards not looking in the direction of Quin's departure. He pulled himself up the wall of the building, using a jutting window sill and a small balcony to propel his ascent. Face now level with the exhaust grate, he removed a screwdriver from his utility belt and undid the screws. He removed the grate, and entered the duct before replacing the grate behind him.

Much as he had expected, the ventilation duct proved to be dark and claustrophobic - the only light coming from beneath where air intakes opened up into various rooms. Through these Lucien managed to catch glimpses of the building's interior. He slithered silently along, passing by a lounge room occupied by a few relaxing gang members, a packed cantina room, and even a massive chamber filled with cages of animals ready for trafficking. The duct dropped off into deep darkness ahead, but before that there would be one more room. Through the little air intake opening, Lucien could see data consoles, filing cabinets, pinboards, maps and documents strewn across tables. And best of all, it looked empty for the time being.

"Quin, I've infiltrated the building and I think I've found a place to start looking for answers. Keep them busy as best you can and let me know if you run into any trouble." He'd whisper into the comlink, hoping the Padawan remembered to turn him up in his earpiece.

This looked like an operations room alright, and the Jedi Knight sure hoped the answers he sought could be found within.

Spoiler: Roll

Rolled 20 for breaking and entering

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

Quin almost didn’t hear Master Adami’s voice coming through his earpiece, but a quick volume adjustment was enough for him to catch most of what he was saying.

“No problem, master! I can do that,” he responded, turning away from the building and into the streets. He wouldn’t go far, but the fewer Outriders that were around their headquarters, the better. It would hopefully give Master Adami some more time to find what they were looking for and get out of there quickly.

As Quin revved up the engine of the speeder bike, he couldn’t help mentally commenting that these ones were far better than the ones Jovan had given them. He’d nearly forgotten about their old ones— would the Neimoidian mind if they gave him two of these instead, if they couldn’t recover the old speeders?

The Outriders were still behind them, and quite living up to their name. Clearly they were expert riders, being able to keep up with Quin for so long even after he zoomed from street to street. As he approached a fruit stand, a blaster bolt zipped past him and landed right on a box of meilooruns, sending the fruits flying in front of him. The Padawan just managed to duck before a couple more bolts went just over his head. Uh-oh.

Changing tactics, Quin quickly turned his speeder around so that it was facing the Outriders coming at him, then went straight forward as fast as it could go. It put an end to the blasting, and at the very last moment Quin launched himself off his speeder and onto a nearby roof. The speeder rammed straight into one of the Outriders’, resulting in a decent-sized explosion that the riders would certainly take a while to recover from.

Take THAT!

Spoiler: Roll

Rolled 13 for speeder ramming

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

Lucien looked down into the operations room through the narrow air opening. It would be pointless to undo the grate that covered it, fitting through there would be impossible anyway. No problem, that was an easy fix for the Jedi Knight. He unclipped his silver lightsaber hilt and pressed it flat against the metal duct, emitter pointing downwards, offset a short distance from the opening into the room below. The green blade ignited and he cut himself a suitably sized opening, the beam of plasma making short work of the metal duct. As he completed the incision, the cutout he had just made dropped downwards, but not before he caught it with the Force, lowering it gently onto the floor below. Smoke billowed up from the still-molten metal in front of him and he waited for it to cool down before inching forward and dropping down into the room. Just like had had for the metal cutout, Lucien used the Force to soften his own landing, bending his knees and rolling to absorb the impact. He touched down with hardly a thud.

The Knight knew Quin could not hold off the gang members forever - the chances of someone interrupting him grew with each passing moment. He quickly got to work. The operations room contained a wealth of information - pinboards detailed plans for upcoming missions and papers and datapads were strewn haphazardly about. Lucien pored over it all, furiously searching for anything related to their mission, filtering through for even the vaguest mention of Bantha, Mundo or Brutus. It was to no avail, despite the Outriders terrible approach to documentation security, all he could see was evidence of the gang's routine poaching and animal trafficking dealings. Until the map caught his eye.

Paper maps were old-school but sure enough, this one was spread out across one the tables, detailing a portion of Onderon's surface. Lucien could identify Iziz city and the surrounding jungle, and off in the distance... There it was. The highlands portion of the planet, with a solid red square drawn within, accompanied by the text "highlands encampment." It didn't give Lucien any concrete answers, but it was better than nothing. Folding the map, he stowed it away within his robe. An explosion echoed outside and Lucien could only hope Quin was alright.

He looked back and forth between the opening in the ceiling he'd used to enter, and one of the data consoles in the room. I should probably be making my exit right about now. On the other hand... Lucien couldn't turn down the prospect of finding out more, even if time was running short. He attempted to access the data console. Locked, of course. No matter, there was a trick for consoles like this a slicer friend of his back on Naboo had shown him. If you cycled the power while simultaneously pressing these three particular inputs... An alarm blared. Lucien's little trick hadn't worked and it looked like his amatuer slicing escapades on Naboo had led him astray. The Outriders' console security was better than he had expected and he would surely be met with company soon. He couldn't make an exit back through the duct like he was planning earlier - as soon as the gang members saw the hole in the celing they'd know exactly where he was.

"Quin, I've gotten into a little bit of a situation here. I might have triggered an alarm." He shouted over the blaring siren in the background. "I'll have to improvise an escape, could need some support if you can manage!"

Spoiler: Dice roll

Rolled 11 for gathering intel

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

The riders who hadn’t been directly involved in the crash were already getting up to their feet, looking around for the Padawan, but the dust and smoke that lingered in the air provided enough cover for Quin to start heading back to their headquarters without being spotted. On the way, he considered contacting Master Adami to see how he was doing, but right as he was about to, he heard his earpiece crackle to life.

“Can do, Master. I’m on the way now!” He started into a run, making for the building with the gleaming rooftop as quickly as he could manage. If Master Adami was in trouble, Quin wanted to be there to help.

The guards from earlier had seemingly gone back to business, marching around the building as they had been before. There was, however, a relatively hidden spot somewhere to his right, and better yet, a control panel for a rusty door facing the backside of the next building. It was probably some kind of emergency exit that was never used, but an exit was an exit. Plus, the guards didn’t seem to pass by there often. If Master Adami came through there, they might have a chance of escaping without getting caught.

He relayed the information to the Jedi knight. “I’ll let you know when I get the door open. Shouldn’t take long.”

After the next group of guards walked by, Quin snuck by behind them and pressed his back against the door. He held his breath, and it was only when they turned the corner that he exhaled and began to work on the panel and try to gain access. The first problem was that the thing was bolted shut, and there was no way for him to get to the wiring underneath it without cutting it open somehow. The second problem was that there was another group of guards coming from the other side that Quin hadn’t seen earlier, and he only had a few seconds before they spotted him trying to tamper with the controls to the door. Just my luck.

Having no idea what else to do, Quin stopped what he was doing and turned around to face the outside, hoping that the guards wouldn’t notice him practically melting into the door behind him. But he had to let Master Adami know that he wouldn’t be able to come this way anymore so he wasn’t walking straight into them.

“Never mind,” he whispered urgently into his comm before quickly putting his hands behind his back as the guards turned their heads. Hopefully Master Adami would get what he meant, because they were marching straight up to him now.

“Step away from there, boy.”

Spoiler: Roll

Rolled a 3

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

It was good to hear Quin was ok and on his way to help; now it was time to address the pressing issue of the alarm. The screeching siren would soon have every free set of gang member hands in the entire mansion congregating on his location. He had to act fast - surely a stealthy approach would be his best shot at success. By the Force it would take some luck, but if he could avoid crossing paths with any angry Outriders he may be able to regroup with Quin free of pursuit.

He exited the operations room, hurried down the broad corridor and slipped into a side room. He was hoping to find a way to the ground floor, or at least a hiding place that'd give him some time to think. The side room he entered held neither of the things he was hoping for. No, for shortly after he'd set foot inside, Lucien was joined by two of his pursuers. Son of a schutta...

The pair stared at him for a brief moment before leaping to action. The burly Zabrak on Lucien's left reached for his comlink, surely about to call in their intruder's location while the human on his right drew her blaster. Lucien wouldn't be there long enough for her to take aim.

He sprinted back down the corridor, all pretense of a stealthy escape abandoned. The Outriders followed. More joined them, forcing Lucien to ignite his lightsaber, swatting away their blaster bolts as he ran. Somehow, through all the din, he successfully received Quin's message about the emergency exit. He remembered seeing the rusty door on his sweep of the exterior - he'd do his best to comply with the plan.

His flight to the ground floor of the building was frantic, though he made it unscathed except for one blaster bolt that met its mark on his left thigh. It seemed that Quin's distraction was effective for the Outriders were disorganised in responding to the alarm and chasing him down. He'd made it to the rusty door, hoping to continue his sprint straight out into the streets of Iziz, but it was still firmly shut. Unbenownst to him, he had missed Quin's follow-up transmission that would have warned him against this path of exit.

Lucien spun around, ignoring the ache that emanated from his wounded leg. Five Outriders rounded the corner and the Jedi Knight brought his lightsaber up in response to their drawn blasters, the green blade casting a gentle glow on the scene. He backed up against the door, feeling the cold metal pressed against him. They had him trapped but they did not fire. A sixth individual entered the scene, and his colleagues made way to admit him - he was noticeably better dressed than the rest of the gang members Lucien had seen thus far.

"Lay down your lightsaber, Master Jedi." Announced the well-dressed Twi'lek, voice dripping with authority. He smiled humourlessly. "You're outgunned, and considerably so at that. Don't try anything stupid."

Spoiler: Dice roll

Rolled a 2

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

“What are you doing here? And what’s with the Jedi costume?” Thank goodness these guards didn’t recognize him. They didn’t even know that his robes were real. Probably because they were coated with mud— it went against the dignified, well-dressed diplomatic-type Jedi that these traffickers probably had in mind. That would make things a lot easier.

“Uhhh…. I was just… trying to find a quiet place to do my project,” he said. “It’s for school, and I’m supposed to, uh, make a holorecording of me explaining the history of the Jedi and what their role was in Ond-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. This isn’t the place for that. Get outta here, skug-rat,” said the Outrider, rolling his eyes. “School project.” He snickered, then waved the rest of the guards away. That was a close one. Quin looked both ways this time, and was pleased to see that no one else was coming. He was about to go back to opening the panel when he heard the sound of blaster bolts through the door. Maybe Master Adami was closer than he’d thought.

Quin backed up from the doorway, trying to find another way in. There had to be one. The doorways would all be blocked— the Outriders would be expecting an exit through one of those. But there was one place that few ever looked: up. Quin did, and right near the top of the wall was the beginning of a ventilation shaft. Master Adami had mentioned one like it earlier, and it would certainly come in handy now.

With a little help from the Force, Quin threw the grappling hook from his belt up to the roof. It wasn’t a long climb after that, and once he got to the ventilation shaft, he got out the screwdriver from his lightsaber repair kit and started to work on unscrewing the grille. He could hear the voices much clearer now, and it did sound like Master Adami was in there.

Screw and grille out of the way, Quin let the latter rest on the roof so as to not drop it to the ground and potentially alert more guards. Once he’d recovered his grappling hook and line, he slowly started to crawl in the direction of the voices until he was right above the group of five Outriders… and a twi-lek? Master Adami was pressed against the door, though for the moment it didn’t seem like the Outriders were going to shoot. For now.

Quin quietly removed the grille from underneath him and jumped out, landing right behind the group of six Outriders. At the sound of his boots hitting the ground, the twi-lek and the rest of the group turned their heads.

“Hi. What'd I miss?”

Spoiler: Roll

Rolled 17

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

It only took a moment for Lucien to overcome his confusion at the Padawan's surprise entrance. His assailants all turned their heads at the new development, creating an opening that the Jedi Knight could exploit. The kid really was an expert at distractions.

Lucien gathered the Force within him and unleashed it at the two men standing at either edge of the group. His intent was to send them hurtling inwards, crashing into their colleagues and knocking them all over like a set of bowling pins. Lucien raised his hands, feeling the flow of the Force acting out his will. Unfortunately in this case, the Force flowed more like a trickling stream than a raging torrent. It wasn't the first time his Jedi powers proved uncooperative... The two gang members he targeted would feel a light shove as they stumbled into the other Outriders.

While he hadn't ended the fight in a single move, the Force push threw the Jedi's opponents off balance. Their attention was now also split between Lucien, already closing the distance with lightsaber ready, and Quin, who had the prime opportunity to make his own move. Lucien would never admit it, but his best choice would likely have been surrender six against one. The Padawan's arrival had shifted the odds considerably.

"Nothing much, I had things largely under control," He joked in response to the Padawan's question, "Glad you could finally make it."

He planned his next move as he approached. The Jedi Knight did not believe taking the life of another was ever the solution to a problem, and yet the lightsaber was an often lethal weapon. He'd have to act carefully.

Spoiler: Dice roll

Rolled a 9 for Force push

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

Now that the Outriders had gotten over their surprise, they readied their weapons as they prepared to attack. Master Adami’s Force push managed to cause a couple of them to stumble, and Quin took the chance to try and further unbalance the one standing closest to him with a kick. However, the man recovered quickly and it missed entirely. Now, the Padawan had a very muscular, very angry-looking Weequay facing him with a very deadly blaster in his hands.

“Glad I… could… help?” Quin’s voice faded out as the Weequay lifted his weapon and made to bash his head. Forgetting all about his lightsaber, the only defense he could come up with in the moment was to ram straight into the man. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as planned, and he ended up getting picked up by both of his arms and thrown to the floor, skidding halfway across the hall and slamming into the wall.

“Owww,” he groaned as he got back up to his feet and rubbed his head, trying to process what had just happened before he saw the Weequay running at him. He managed to dive out of the way right before a fist slammed into a marble column where he’d previously been standing. The Weequay drew back his hand, shook it, and turned to face Quin again. The Padawan’s instinctive reaction was to run, and run he did. The only thought in his head was that he really, really needed to take a combat class.

With Master Adami facing the five other Outriders on his own, Quin wondered if he was doing alright. Hopefully he was faring better than the Padawan was— because the alarm was still blaring and more Outriders would be here soon if they didn’t get out of here fast.

Spoiler: Roll

Rolled 2

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

Quin had engaged a towering Weequay in combat and it was time for Lucien to make his own move. He intended to follow through with his non-lethal approach and so he primed his lightsaber for a swing at one of the Outrider's blasters, hoping to slice the the weapon in half. Just before he made his move, a muzzle flashed. One of the gang members to his left fired at him and Lucien brought his lightsaber up to defend, only barely able to direct the bolt away from his body.

He looked up at Quin, only to see the boy being thrown into a wall. Ouch. Why hasn't he got his lightsaber out? Two more outriders opened fire and Lucien deflected the bolts, sticking his tongue out in concentration. Quin had the one Weequay distracted but the remaining five members focused were on the older Jedi. The dapper Twi'lek kept a cool distance from the action - the other gang members seemed to be sheltering him.

Lucien made his swing at the Outrider's blaster, but not before one of his friends whipped his own blaster pistol straight across the Jedi's face. He saw stars. Another took took the opportunity to plant a fist into the gut of the distracted Lucien and it took everything he had not to double over from the pain.

Mental note, 5-on-1 is too many. The young Jedi had drastically overestimated his abilities - he was quite confortable fighting one-on-one against another lightsaber weilding opponent, but this was a whole different thing entirely. Perhaps if he had no qualms cutting the gang members down, the fight would've gone more in his favour, but Lucien was ever true to his no-killing principles.

He had only one option. Gathering the Force in his legs, he made a made dash through the mass of bodies ahead, trying to power his way through. The plan was quickly thwarted by a harsh kick to his shin that sent him rolling and tumbling. He came to a stop, the five Outriders approaching him from in his front, while the angry weequay closed in from behind. Looks like Quin's making a dash for it!

"Quin, go for the kitchen! There's an exit through the kitchen." He said through his comlink. Lucien wasn't sure where the kitchen was, but he hoped the Padawan would find the direction useful somehow.

Spoiler: Dice roll

Rolled a 1 :(

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

The kitchen! There was an exit there? Thank the Force. He just had to find it first, but that was doable. The Weequay didn’t seem to be chasing him anymore, and that was yet another bonus. Quin took off running, making it a good way down the hall when his footsteps began to slow. Wait a minute… If the Weequay wasn’t with him… Master Adami! He came to a sudden stop and turned around, watching in horror as the Outriders closed in on the Jedi knight.

“Master!” Quin couldn’t just leave him behind. There had to be a better way— where both of them would be able to get to the kitchen together. So, he sprinted back to where Master Adami was, waving his arms when he got close.

“Hey, big guy!” The Weequay turned around in surprise, and as Quin passed by a small metal statue of a growling nexu, he grabbed it and threw it straight at the Outrider, hitting him right in the face. He fell down, unconscious. Quin jumped right over him and landed next to Master Adami, this time with his lightsaber out.

“We can find it together.” He flashed Master Adami a quick smile before turning to face the five Outriders who remained. They were now much closer, standing in a line, and their blasters pointed at the Jedi as they got ready to shoot. There would be no way they could deflect so many blaster bolts at the same time, especially not with Quin barely trained in his. But, he did have an idea. It was risky, but it was risky even coming into this place.

Just as he heard them cock their blasters, Quin shrugged off his outer robe and threw it at the gangsters with the Force, covering their heads and arms with the cloth. It gave Master Adami a chance to make his move, and hopefully get them enough time to get out of here.

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

Pain. Every breath was a struggle as he adjusted to the the unfortunate reality of his situation. Bruised? Lucien gently probed the area where the punch had landed. OW! Definitely. Broken? ...I sure hope I haven't broken anything. He didn't have a whole lot of time to consider the implications of his new injury as the Weequay behind attempted to stomp down on him. The Jedi Knight rolled, barely managing to avoid the descending boot.

The gang members closed in, the majority among them with blasters drawn, and yet still nobody nobody fired. I guess trafficking is their business after all. Maybe they're not in the habit of killing their victims? It seemed surrender was his only option when suddenly the Weequay collapsed, a clanging of metal accompanying the meaty thud of his body hitting the floor. Out of nowhere Quin landed beside Lucien and the Jedi Knight's thoughts of surrender instantly dissolved. He watched Quin throw his robe at the gangsters and as they struggled to throw it off, Lucien sprung to his feet, ignoring the pain as best as he could. A strained "thanks," was all he could manage in reply.

He reached out to the Force for guidance and it answered his call. Giving himself over to its will, he stammered, stumbled and limped away from the ensuing chaos behind him, moving surprisingly fast given his condition. He leaned on whatever he could for for support as he navigated the ground floor of the mansion. He had no idea where he was going but luckily the Force seemed to have that covered. Without so much as a glance at the outriders behind them, he took a right, two lefts, went down a long corridor - and there it was.

Lucien pushed through the swinging doors and entered the kitchen. On the far side of the room there was a doorway - the way outside. "Nice place..." He breathed heavily. "shame about the residents. Let's get out of here."

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

As the Outriders struggled underneath his robe, Quin turned and started to back his way down the hall along with Master Adami, reaching out a hand and successfully knocking the Outriders down with the Force. That would slow them down a bit. When they turned a corner, he glanced at Master Adami, who didn’t seem to be looking behind him at all. Did he know where he was going? Even if he didn’t, they couldn’t exactly turn back, he reasoned, so he decided to trust the Jedi knight in where he was going. Wherever they would end up, Quin would have his back. It turned out that he wouldn’t have to. Two more turns later, the two Jedi found themselves in front of the kitchen.

“Whoa. That was impressive.” The pleasant surprise wouldn’t last long, however. Quin glanced behind them as Master Adami opened the door, and he could hear the Outriders in the hall. They were getting close. Quin ran over to the door and pressed the button on the panel, but to his dismay, it wouldn’t open.

“Lockdown’s still in place. Looks like I’ll have to cut it.” With that, he ignited his saber again and began slicing a hole in the door, and once it was big enough, he kicked the metal out of the way and glanced at Master Adami. His injuries didn’t look great, and Quin was worried about what would happen if the Outriders caught up.

“You go first, Master. I’ll cover you.” He didn’t give the Jedi knight a chance to respond, pushing him out the door just as the Outriders came into the room. Shouting ensued, and just as they began to fire, Quin threw the piece of metal from the door back at them, knocking the blasters out of their hands. Before they could pick them up, he jumped out of the door to meet up with Master Adami outside.

“Sorry about that. Are you alright, Master? You don’t look too good.”

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

It was a good thing Quin decided to come back because there'd be no chance of Lucien making it free on his own. Their flight from the Outrider H.Q. was a solid team effort, Jedi Knight leading the way out while the Padawan fended off their pursuers with the Force.

"Nonsense, thanks for coming back. I should never have let it come to that, I was... sloppy. I'm fine, I'm sure it's just a bad bruise." He said through gritted teeth as Quin joined him outside. That wasn't fooling anybody. "We can talk more once we're clear of danger."

Being on the run from a gang of criminals, Lucien figured it'd be best to retreat to a populous, well-policed part of the city and that's exactly where he tried to steer towards, traversing side-streets and back-alleys as he did so. He hoped that was enough to throw the Outriders off their scent. Eventually they'd come across a shadowed alcove and Lucien would slowly lower himself to the ground, straining.

"Just a minute... Think I need a bit of a break." He tested the wounded area on his abdomen again. "OW! I've definitely seen better days."

What a fool I've been. If only he'd just cut his losses and escaped through the vent when he had the chance. But nooo, he had to push his luck, had to try and be the hero. Had to trigger the alarm. Guess real missions didn't go as smoothly as the made up ones he loved to read in holobooks.

"I'm the one who should be apologising Quin - I put myself in that situation... Put us both in danger." The first mission of his Jedi Knight career and what a start it was. "Wasn't all for nothing at least. It's not much but I did find some intel while I was at it."

With great labour, Lucien withdrew the map he'd stolen from the gangsters and handed it over for Quin to examine. He knew the map detailed the location of a number of Outrider camps around the planet, including one in the highlands, but maybe there was something he missed - he'd only managed a cursory glance at the map after all.


@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

Master Adami was definitely not fine from the way he looked, but he was right that they should probably get out of here before letting their guard down. After glancing behind to see if anyone was following, Quin followed the Jedi knight through the streets until they reached an alcove. There, he watched anxiously as Master Adami lowered himself to the ground and tested his wound.
“Take it easy, Master. You don’t want to make it worse.” You sound like your mother. Quin ignored it.

“Well, it’s not all your fault, Master,” he said as he sat down beside the Jedi knight. “I could have stopped you, so it was on me too. But either way, it was the best shot we had at finding Brutus. And you did get something out of it.” Quin gave him a sideways smile as he accepted the map and opened it. As he scanned over it, he saw the red square around the highlands encampment, but there was something else that caught his eye. Fine print, just barely noticeable near the rudimentary outline of the camp, but the word’ bantha’ was unmistakable.

Lifting the paper up to his face to get a closer look, Quin read what he saw out loud.

“It says here… ‘Bantha tied to a post outside camp. Send men to pick up soon.’ Oooh, this is bolded. ‘Mygeeto burrito, roasted porg’... Oh. It’s just their takeout order.” Quin lowered the map and showed it to Master Adami. But just as he did, something written on the back popped out at him and he lifted it up.

“Wait. ‘Payment will be in spice.’ That’s interesting. It adds up to what the woman told me in the cantina.” He read on to see what the client’s name was, but it was smudged out. It didn’t matter, from what they knew already. “Lucky for us, we already know who placed the order.” He grinned as he handed the map back to Master Adami, then remembered that the Jedi knight was in no condition to go about traipsing in the mountains. But, now that they were in a quiet spot, he might be able to do something about it.

“By the way, I, uh, know a little Force healing. My master showed me before we went to Mon Cala. I can… try to help you out, if you want.” He offered a hand.

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

Even through the pain Lucien couldn't help but allow himself a genuine smile as Quin narrated his examination of the map he'd stolen. He wasn't sure exactly what he was smiling about. It definitely wasn't the prospect of getting acquainted with a big smelly Bantha. Lucien had bitten off way more than he could chew with his infilitration of the Outrider base, that was a lesson he would take into the future, but the fact that there was an ultimate payoff to his actions let him save some face at least. Perhaps he was also excited to reunite Jovan with his beloved pet. Maybe just a little. That was why they were here in the first place after all, and finally, the path to their objective seemed to be clear.

Lucien nodded as the Padawan alluded to the person the commissioned the order. It had to be Lat Mundo. "We ought to keep this map safe. It'll be quite the piece of evidence to bring back to the Order - proves the connection to the spice deal and everything."

The Knight was quick to accept Quin's offer of healing. He lifted his robe and tunic, revealing discoloured purple skin emanating from the impact point on his left side. His ribs were heaviy bruised, and it sure felt like damage had been done internally as well.

"Break a leg." The implication of his words hit him. "Uhh, you know what I mean."

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

“Oh, yeah. Mundo is done,” Quin said with a grin as he folded the map and slid it into his pocket. Now that they knew where Brutus was, all they had to do was get there before the Outriders did and get him back to Jovan. Their path forward was much clearer now and he was glad that all this had amounted to something. The next step would be getting Master Adami fixed up for the trip, at least for the most part, and Quin was semi-confident that he would be able to do it.

When Master Adami revealed his wound, Quin couldn’t help wincing at the sight.

“Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.” At the knight’s next comment, the Padawan raised a brow before grinning again. “Heh. Let’s hope I do. Or don’t. You know what I mean too.” With that, he placed a gentle hand on top of the wound, closing his eyes and focusing on the life energy between him and Master Adami. Concentrating some of his own into his hand, Quin allowed it to pass through into the Jedi knight.

When he had opened his eyes again, the bruise had been reduced to nothing more than a light shade of purple. It wasn’t completely healed and could still be a little painful, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was before.

“There! Good as new. Kind of.”

@Lucien

 

[Lucien Adami]

Lucien stretched left and right, testing the effectiveness of Quin's work. No way. Although he still felt a fair amount of residual pain, it was night and day compared to a minute ago. "Huh. Have you ever considered a career in healing?"

The Jedi Knight sprung to his feet, wincing a little as he did so. Ok, so he still had to take it a little easy. Lucien wasn't a doctor, or even very medically inclined at all, but it seemed like Quin had done a fantastic job. He wondered how bad the wound really was in the first place - Lucien wasn't in the habit of taking punches like that and he certainly had a bit of a dramatic streak about him.

"Alright so our first tangle with the Outriders wasn't exactly a walk in the park. But we've learned our lesson. This time we do it on our terms." He felt a renewed sense of enthusiasm about their mission and it showed in the smile that tugged at his lips. "Those speeders Jovan issued us were pieces of junk, there's no getting around that. But that may just play to our advantage this time - there's a fair chance nobody's bothered to steal them."

Lucien started walking towards the dodgy part of town where they'd left he speeders, talking as he did. "So, that's one method of transport that's probably available. I wonder if Jovan's ship's stuck around this whole time? That could be another option though we know it's avalanche country up there. Wouldn't want to risk triggering one."

"Seems to me like we have two ways of approaching this. Either we hit the camp before the pickup crew gets there and make off with Brutus. The problem there would be outrunning any pursuers while dragging a bantha along behind us. The other option we have is intercepting Brutus after, at some point between the camp and his eventual location - Mundo's estate no doubt. The pickup crew is likely to be be well armed and capable of fending off an attack. It'll be dangerous whatever we pick but let's make sure whatever we do is well planned out. What do you think?" He looked to Quin for his input.

@Sicadorito

 

[Quin Leonkri]

Quin couldn’t help grinning as he saw Master Adami get up to his feet again. He was happy that he was able to help, and even more happy now that they knew where Brutus was.

“My master is a healer… so, maybe!” he chirped at the Jedi knight’s comment, then brought his attention back to the mission at hand for the umpteenth time today. This time was different, though. He could tell that both of them had a renewed vigor for their assignment now that things were back on track.

Walking alongside Master Adami as they started to head back to where they’d left their speeders, thinking about how they would approach this. Getting the ship wouldn’t be a problem, since they could send a transmission to Jovan or the pilot, though Master Adami was right about the avalanche part. They likely wouldn’t be able to land without triggering one, if it was as bad as the Mythrol had been saying.

When Master Adami detailed the two options, Quin put his hand to his chin as he considered them.

“I think we should intercept them. Let the Outriders worry about the avalanche— they know the land better than we do.” Then they wouldn’t have to worry about escaping with Brutus and the Outriders who would surely be chasing after them.

“That would give us some more time, too. We could contact Jovan and let him know that we found Brutus and need a pickup. He might send us some reinforcements too,” he mused. “But if he doesn’t…” Well, he hadn’t thought that far ahead.

They turned a corner, and Quin was pleased to see that their speeders were still where they left them, thank goodness.

“We’ll think of something.”

@Lucien