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Post by Shuku Bralor on Feb 8, 2011 17:00:41 GMT -8
49 ABY Shuku Bralor's Ship, Demented Drexl
Dramatis Personae: Shuku Bralor Aniri Veila Javed Dreiz Baar'Atin Rau
The Pursuer-class enforcement ship, Demented Drexl, exited the Anakin Solo's hangar bay. She felt her muscles relax from the fight and just from Even as she set a course Shuku knew it was pointless until they had more information from Baar. But she hoped that having a destination of any kind might help assuage Aniri's fears. As much as any Jedi could meditate and create placidity in themselves, she did not want to test her limits where her children were concerned. Mother's love was completely foreign to her, but she knew it was a force to be reckoned with. She wondered if Baar's compatriots had considered that before taking on the job. Unlikely, as Baar's friends usually shared his hard-headed self-importance. You can't fear death if you've convinced yourself you'll never die. She'd just have to remind him that not only could he die, but it might be imminent if he didn't cooperate, no matter their history. "Glitch!" she said, turning to her droid, a modded GH-7, "do a full sweep for bugs and trackers. Be ready for a course change, I'm going below to get our ...'directions'" With that she left the bridge, taking the lift down to the bottom level. She'd made her own modifications to the ship, but she'd left a couple of the cells set up for prisoners rather than actual guests. One of the rooms would forever be "Aniri's room" in her mind, but everything else was transient, just like most of Shuku's life. Striding down to the last cell, Shuku paused for a moment, took a breath and keyed it open. There, cuffed and bound to the wall, lay Baar'Atin Rau, the closest she had ever come to love. That had been years ago, and she couldn't muster up enough respect for him to have any respect for herself for having been with him. She would admit it, but she'd much sooner admit the satisfaction she got from kicking him in his ribs earlier. Looking up at her with his beautiful blue eyes he smiled. "Really Baar? I hope you don't expect that I'll be easy on you if you give me those puppy eyes" "But Shuku darling, I can't help but smile at seeing your beautiful face." "Do. not. call me darling. I'm not here to play Baar. I'm here for information." "If I give you the information you want, aren't you just going to toss me out the airlock?" She had considered that already, and had yet to come up with a good reason not to. "Why shouldn't I?" "Man, not even a pretense of safe release? You always were terrible at interrogations." "They were not my specialty, no. But you know me well enough to know that I am not joking around about this. Everyone on this ship wants you dead for one reason or another. And all of us would be justified in snuffing out your pitiful life. Once we have the children safely in hand, the only delay to your death will be us arguing about who gets to pull the trigger." His face was stone cold for a second as he considered, and then dipped his head in a slight nod. "Yeah, really terrible at interrogations." Pursing her lips, Shuku pulled back her hand, still wearing her crushgaunt, and backhanded him across the face. She was rewarded with a satisfying *crack* as it hit his cheekbone and knocked him as far as his bindings would allow. She crouched in front of him, watching as he spit blood onto the cell floor. The fresh blood landed on top of one of the older, much larger stains; they had never much bothered her, but they were rather helpful in conveying the gravity of situations. Grabbing his jaw in her hand she twisted his face up to her and stared straight into him with her inky black eyes. "I made you a promise when I saw you last, and even you should have been wise enough to ensure our paths never crossed again. Do not think I will not keep that promise. You've earned it doubly over now. And since I can't kill you twice, I'll just have to make it as slow as I can. You've lost your right to a warrior's death. Help me save her children, and maybe you'll win that back." With the barest of chuckles and a bloody grin he asked," but who will save you?" "I don't need saving Baar, I haven't for a very very long time. And even when I did, I could still beat your ass." She tried hard not to think back to the early days, when she had just gotten off of Rattatak, of the boy that showed her how a buy'ce worked. "I promise to make it quick if we get the children back unharmed." "I do want to help you Shuku" he returned her stare, with a look filled with concern and caring. She dropped her hand from his jaw, and stood back up, staring down at him. "Then help me save the children. Where are they?" "Will you uncuff me?" he held out his hands toward her. "No, where are the children?" "What's the magic word?" he grinned, somehow looking completely innocent and playful despite his open wounds. Gritting her teeth she opened her lips just enough to say, "please" A broad smile filled his face, "Zeltros. I heard them say there were going to Zeltros." Hitting her comm she called up to the bridge, "Glitch, change course to Zeltros." "Acknowledged" fizzled back at her. "And open the door to Cell 1" the door fwooshed open behind her and she turned to leave. As she coded the controls to re-secure the lock Baar called after her, "What, no thank you?" The door clunked shut sharply and quite faintly she heard through the durasteel "your welcome".
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Post by Aniri Veila on Feb 24, 2011 11:06:18 GMT -8
They were headed to Zeltros and it was taking them a long time. So damned long. Zeltros... Aniri had never been there before but she was thankful for the small gift that it wasn't Coruscant. If they'd gone to Coruscant there would have been little hope of getting the children back but thankfully it didn't seem like Pathfinder was ready to divulge to the galaxy that he was the kind of monster that would kidnap innocent children. Probably wouldn't be great for the polls.
Aniri tried her best to let the anger flow through her but mediating just wasn't working. Instead of releasing her anger with each breath her chest only seemed to tighten. The truth of the matter was that she was terrified. She'd lost track of how long she'd been trying to reach the children through the force but it felt like she'd been trying forever. It was like reaching out into emptiness. They weren't dead. They couldn't be. She'd know if they were. She would know. They were all still young but her children were talented. Cassie in particular, if her daughter could have she would have reached back. In her strange way Cassie had even stayed in contact with her during Aniri's imprisonment with the Mera'Din. She'd always been able to depend on it. But now there was nothing. Aniri had to hope that it was because they were unconscious... and nothing more. If she allowed herself to believe it was anything more than she'd lose her mind.
She was trying her best but even isolated away in her compartment she couldn't find the calm that was normally so easy to grasp. Almost immediately after threatening Baar she'd locked herself away in her bunk. She knew that she should have been ashamed of her behavior but what her mind knew and what her heart felt were for once completely disconnected. All she could think about were her children.
Shuku and Javed would handle Baar. if he knew anything more they would force it out of him. It was cowardly but she couldn't trust herself in a room with the Mandolarian, not yet. Keeping herself from chocking the life out of him would have been too much for her to handle, he wouldn't last and they needed whatever information he could continue to give.
Aniri opened her eyes long enough to see that Javed was no longer in the room with her. She'd been so focused she hadn't even notice he'd left. It was probably for the best. She couldn't be consoled and him watching her sit wasn't going to help things. Javed was a stone wall when he wanted to be, which was often, but he was missing a child too and although he hadn't said anything she could see the panic he felt. She didn't need to think that her stone wall was crumbling.
If there was any news someone would get her, when they arrived someone would get her, but for now all she could do was reach and hope.
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Post by Shuku Bralor on Feb 25, 2011 19:41:37 GMT -8
The pain coursed through his bones, each breath a razor sharp stab into his chest. He could feel his face swelling, and his vision had started to turn red in one eye. The hurt reminded him of how glad he was that Shuku hadn't lost her edge, but also of how much he had lost. She had always been impossible to read and being apart had made it even more difficult. He wanted to believe he saw a speck of her old feelings for him, but realistically he had no evidence to that fact, and his nerve endings certainly argued the opposite. He hoped he was right though because Shuku knew most of his tricks, which would make escape nigh impossible. And if he was wrong, and he didn't manage to escape... well he could at least hope it would be painless. If he helped them get the little brats back he'd either win her back and live happily ever after chasing after bounties and destroying their enemies, or at least he'd hopefully earn a warrior's death. A sudden tickle in his dry throat made him cough, bringing some fluid up from his lungs, and he spit blood. He'd forgotten how powerful she was, but damn her ruthlessness was sexy. He heard the lock disengage on the door and forced a smile on his face. She's always been a sucker for his smoldering good looks he thought. But when the door clicked open it wasn't who he expected to see. Instead it was a slightly worse for the wear, modded GH-7 med droid who hovered into the room. "Oh hey Glitch," grinning for real just a bit, "long time no see" "Greetings prisoner. I have been sent to ensure that none of your injuries are fatal or will prevent you from assisting Shuku Bralor on her mission" Glitch came over near him, but stayed a safe distance away as he started to scan him over with his sensors. "What not even a kind word for your old pal?" Only the sound of Glitch's hover motor humming and the ticking of the scan answered him. "Didn't you even miss me?" A sigh, or the closest mechanical equivalent, was the well deserved reply. "You disabled my optic sensors and tried to overwrite my core programming last time you were on this ship!"
"Yeah, but the program was better. Honest. You would have been a lean mean killing...well, machine!" Glitch used an arm to check and make sure the binders were still secure before he prodded at the bruised ribs. "Ow. Bedside manner is a little rough don't you think Doctor Droid?" "One. I have told you that I despise that nickname. So don't call me that or I might just check your temperature. Two. My bedside manner is as kindly as ever for regular patients, you are a prisoner patient. Three. Even if I did like you before, I have been strictly instructed to not assist you in anyway not required by my orders nor offer any sort of comforting words or sympathy."
"So I guess she's still mad at me, huh?" "Astute as always Baar'Atin." and with that he prodded at the broken ribs again.
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Post by Shuku Bralor on Mar 6, 2011 15:18:01 GMT -8
There was blood on her hands. Nothing new for Shuku she realized, but this blood had been spilled for her before. As she sat on the bridge, she couldn't seem to get her thoughts straight. Her actions always came across so sure, but right now, she really didn't know what to do. She hadn't been lying, she would kill him. This was one of the few instances where she didn't think Aniri would argue with her about it either. What was he trying to play at anyway? He never did understand when things were serious; to him, everything was a game. Of course she'd always had the opposite problem. She couldn't even recall how many times she'd been chided for breaking some kid's nose during a supposedly friendly game. She kept an eye on the monitor, smiling a bit as she saw Glitch poke Baar in the ribs. It was actually rather surprising that Baar hadn't tried anything on the droid yet. She'd expected an escape attempt. Or at least for him to try and pilfer one of the medical tools to pick the locks for later. She'd been watching the entire time though and had yet to notice anything of that nature. Could he actually be willing to help them? It sounded ridiculous to even conceive of in her head. He'd so vehemently tried to get her to abandon this job over the years, back when she'd actually let him have her comm ID. Her whole life she'd never seen him change or mature even a bit, it was hard to believe he would have started to grow up now. But why risk taking a job where he knew he would likely run into her? Desperate hope to still win her over? He was foolish enough for that sure, but did he really think by being on the side of the kidnappers he'd have any chance with her? She envied Aniri at moments like this. She was so much more attuned to people and their motivations. She could meditate and think through a situation. How much of that was her Jedi training, and how much of it was just Shuku's own inability, she'd never determine. Shuku could sit here and ponder away all she wanted, but the odds of her figuring out Baar's motivations were slimmer than a fasting Nagai. The turbolift doors opened behind her with their usual groan and squeak. A noise she could have fixed easily enough with a couple hours and some oil, but she liked it being difficult for anyone to arrive quietly behind her. "How's the patient Glitch?" " Annoying," he replied as he hovered over toward his co-pilot seat. "I'd thought that went without saying." He made that exasperated sigh noise that always amused her. "He'll live, but I think you knew that. You did well as always; the injuries are definitely painful enough to be a reminder, but not life-threatening. I'd avoid hitting in the head for awhile though, I think he may be slightly concussed."
"Serves the chaakar* right" she said, feeling her jaw clench shut in frustration. "You'll find no argument from me."Glancing back at the screen she saw that Baar was staring at the camera, he smiled and waved as much as his bound hands would allow. Pursing her lips she stood abruptly. "Keep an eye on him would ya Glitch? He'll try something, I know he will." "Of course, shall I tend to your injuries now?""No, I'll be fine, just a bruise or two. I'm going down to the hold to work out, probably get a couple more anyway. Comm down there the second he starts acting suspicious." And with that she headed down the stairs. Her plated boots echoing loudly off of the metal steps. Checking over the readouts, Glitch made sure to check the monitor regularly. Baar just kept looking up at the camera and smiling. No matter how hard he taxed his circuitry he would never understand that organic. *chaakar - corpse robber
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Post by Javed Dreiz on Mar 16, 2011 6:22:55 GMT -8
Javed waited patiently. Shuku had an air about her, when about that man, that particular Mandolorian. It didn't take an Omwati mathematician to figure out that beneath her vicious and often relentless assault upon Baar'Atin Rau, she felt something for him. Whether it was shame, disgust, Love, hatred, or some mixture of them all, Javed hadn't decided, but there was definitely something there. But he decided too, to leave that for another time. The man had information that he needed and Shuku, while skilled in physical torture, did not have the appetite for mental deconstruction; or so she made it seem.
But Javed did.
Aniri was distraught beyond reason. Or for good reason, if he looked at it from a different field. She could not sense her children, and he was sure that any mother would take leave of their better senses when faced with a similar dilemma. But Javed knew that they were fine. He could feel them. He chose not to reveal this information, solely because if something happened, he did not like the notion that he would be the anchor or linchpin, that shouldered the weight of Aniri's hopes. While he loved her, completely, he sometimes found her foolishly optimistic. And in this situation . . . if any of the children suffered more a few scrapes and bruises, many would die badly. Particularly Adam Pathfinder.
The man did not know the sort of wrath he had called down upon himself, but he had to know that he would have the strongest, most dangerous people in the galaxy after him; and at some point in the very near future, his security, his entourage, his current prestige would not be enough to save his life. Of that special fact, Javed was absolutely certain.
The doors shifted open and the little droid, 'Glitch', he believed it was called hovered away, down the extending corridor toward the lift and the cockpit. No doubt to report back to Shuku. He waited upon he heard the crisp snap of the lift doors shutting, before extending himself either way to make sure that Aniri was no where near. She wasn't. Still in her room, despairing, or doing her best not to.
He crossed the hall casually, opening the door and stepping inside. The man sat shackled and bloodied on the floor, one of his eyes red and swollen from a broken blood vessel; numerous lacerations and abrasions on his face, neck, and exposed hands. Javed didn't think they bothered so much as he put on. None of them were life-threatening and that fact alone told him that Shuku wasn't completely ready to lose this man.
They met eyes for a moment, but when the man spoke, he did not, instead looking about until he found the locations of three hidden cameras. He raised his hand and sent out concentrated bursts of electro-magnetic energy to knock them out of commission. They weren't permanently damage, but they would be down long enough for him to proceed undisturbed. He imagined, he had all of two minutes to remove whatever information he needed from Rau, before Shuku showed up.
He would have to make the process a little slower, so that he didn't completely break the man. With a lazy mien, his hazel eyes burning with a dangerous intensity into Baar'Atin's, Javed lowered himself onto his haunches, his trademark serious expression making him appear almost expressionless. "You are going to tell me everything you know. This is not a request and this will hurt . . . A lot." He reached out a hand and braced his palm against the man's forehead. Again there was a smart comment, some quip about Jedi magic and sorcery. Javed met his eyes again. "I am not a Jedi." He replied quietly, before sending a burst of Lightning directly into the man's mind.
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Post by Baar'Atin Rau on Mar 17, 2011 18:31:26 GMT -8
The paaaaaaain! Oh, the pain! Oh dear lord the pain!!!!
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Post by Shuku Bralor on Mar 17, 2011 18:57:19 GMT -8
Shock reverberated up her hand, through her arm, straight to her shoulder. Impact after impact. She kept pummeling at her target with her fists, picturing Baar's face on it. If she hit or kicked hard enough, eventually his face would disappear, it always did. She hated being haunted by a man who wasn't dead...yet.
Sweat dripped into her eyes, stinging, but it didn't erase his image. She wanted to rip his face off for what he'd done and for endangering the children, but part of her still just wanted to fall into a rough passionate embrace with him too. GAH!
At that thought, she struck even harder, hitting so forcefully she felt the pain in her bones. Good, she though, she deserved it for even thinking about the possibility of that with him. That's what he was counting on, that's what he wanted. And she'd vowed to never give him what he wanted again.
Sitting on a crate she took off her glove to examine her hand, and noticed Glitch coming down the corridor.
"What is it? What's he doing?"
"Well the prisoner has done nothing as far as I can tell. But the cameras are all knocked out in there so I cannot be 100% accurate"
"WHAT?"
She jumped to her feet immediately at that.
"Well Javed went into his cell, and then the cameras all blinked out. The door definitely hasn't opened again, so Baar hasn't escaped. But I don't know what's going on in there. I thought you would prefer to be kept apprised of the situation."
A furrow fluttered across her brow before she launched across the bay, barreled past the droid, heading straight toward the cell. The metal plates clanged under her boots, she could hear the whirring of Glitch's hovermotor as he turned and followed.
Her body was already sore from the workout, she'd pushed herself too hard. To be fair she hadn't expected to be doing anything physical out of necessity this soon. She should have known better than to trust Javed to let things alone. Aniri insisted he was trustworthy, but he'd hurt her before. No one else that knew him trusted him, and her job was to protect Aniri and the kids, not him.
She reached the door first and fought against her own momentum to stop in front of it, and thumbed at the controls. The door didn't open. She tried the code again, and they stayed shut. She was about to rip the panel off the wall when Glitch arrived, immediately inserting a prod and the doors shunked open.
She looked in to see Javed, standing over Baar. Baar was still breathing, panting actually, and she could have sworn she saw a spark of electricity shoot between his teeth. Damn Force users and their tricks.
She froze her muscles so she wouldn't leap across the room at him. She locked her jaw, trying desperately to stay in control.
"What, the hell, are you doing, Javed?!?"
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Post by Javed Dreiz on Mar 18, 2011 4:51:08 GMT -8
He felt her coming. Something like a storm billowing up and bowling over a long, pleasant plain overcasting the wealth of land and life in a dark, brooding shadow. Luckily for him, he'd gleaned all he needed from Baar'Atin. It was a skill he'd be willfully coerced into learn by his father and a few of his giddy aides.
The brain did funny things when assaulted with inescapable pain. Images, memories, sensations, chaotic at best, ran rampant of their own volition and the normal mind had no way of knowing what was going on outside of the agony. He'd been instructed many times over how to view these thoughts, sporadic as they might be and sift through what might be useful and what was insignificant. And that's exactly what he had done. Baar'Atin had known exactly the sort of man he was working for when he accepted the job from Pathfinder, had had little qualms about apprehending "potential Jedi and Enemies-of-the-State", so long as the credits were copious and he'd the chance of pissing Shuku off.
Numerous other little things came to his mind as well, such as an old, old pet name that he called Shuku when they were young or the time he ran a rival through with a vibro-blade in his third Battle Circle match or even when attempted to capture Jacen Solo on the Anakin (an opportunity never presented itself, directly). Most of the memories of information that he'd taken held no currently applicable value, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't later.
He looked at her, huffing, slightly sagging, covered in sweat; his face calm and as unreadable as ever. "Meeting *Ke'ka'rta'tua." He replied. "Su race'rre kadem'tua." He frowned. "Sorry, my Mando'a is a rusty." His gazed fell down to the almost comatose male, whom was trying to control his left thigh that was still convulsing from excess energy, before meeting her gaze again. "Is there something to matter?" He tilted his head to eye the hovering droid behind her. He was not sure if it could feel fear, but he did know that it did not meander near or in his presence without her close by.
*ke'ka'rta'tua= my small heart | *su race'rre kadem'tua= he will lighten our enemies.
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Post by Shuku Bralor on Mar 18, 2011 8:40:28 GMT -8
The audacity. She couldn't tell if he was just so sure of himself or he judged her so poorly that he had imagined that this wouldn't "matter". "I'd say that YES there's something the matter here. You were just using Force lightning on him weren't you?" She stared at him, but it was so obvious that the question was rhetorical, a denial would have been insulting. "That is a completely unreliable way of getting information out of someone! I knew what I was doing; I know exactly how much a body can take. And if I had messed up I could throw him in a tank of bacta and start again. Tell me Javed, would a bacta tank fix a Force lightning husk of a mind? He'd already agreed to help us get the children back. He's thick-headed but not quite so stupid as to not realize that's the only way to avoid a slow horrible death." She glanced down out Baar, thinking that maybe they should move out of his cell. It never looked good to argue in front of a prisoner. He looked so bad she hardly thought it would matter in this case though. Turning her head to the side, while still fixing an angry stare at Javed she spoke as calmly as she could, "Glitch, could you please check out the prisoner's physical condition, again" The droid flew past her, but made sure to approach Baar from the opposite side of where Javed stood. She'd thought she might need to change his protocols with regard to the man, but it seemed Glitch was learning all on his own that he couldn't be trusted. "That Force power duse* could have killed him. As it is you could have scrambled his brains halfway past never already. I was being careful during my own questioning to make sure he could still be useful. We need him in order to make contact with these kidnappers. Do you really think any one of us on this ship would go unrecognized? I'm sure they have files on all of us a metre thick. But they know his face too and recognize it as own of their own etyc* vod! We need him, and you could have killed him with that electric poodoo and then we never would have found the children! I had it under control." *duse - rubbish, waste, unclean things, etyc - filthy
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Post by Javed Dreiz on Mar 18, 2011 9:33:57 GMT -8
He knew that it was probably his most awful habit, but he had never really learned how portray emotions, such as disgruntlement or displeasure on his face. Instead, he remained stoic as her voice rose in volume, his eyes watching her, reading her, judging her. As was his normal act, he did not speak until she'd finished her spiel, completely nonplussed by her aroused anger. "I've been doing this for years. He is fine, will remain fine, unless I decide to break him." He added the final part, knowing that Rau was coherent enough to understand that his brief torture was only broken, because he, Javed chose to. "If I wanted his mind to be . . . " He paused as Baar'Atin leaned as far to the side as he could and vomited. "If I wanted him to be shattered beyond reason," he started as if he could not hear the awful wretching that the Mandolorian was making by his right calf, "that'd be no effort whatsoever. My methods, while more impressive than your own, do not ache my conscience. He will be . . . capable of doing whatever else, you might need him to do. But he gave me information that I wanted, I am done with him." It was probably the most he had said to anyone beside Aniri, since their spectacular escape from Ossus, and definitely not like him to explain himself to her.
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