The Failing Search

[Dalton]

Koth-Durr was in the back of a Star Wind transporter, laying down in one of the small bunks, his feet dangling over the edge. He was swaying them back and forth to the tune of beeping and buzzing sounds coming from the cockpit of ship. His eyes hidden beneath his own lids and his hood covering his face. He'd never been in a ship, he didn't really enjoy the experience either. Flying light years through space, just a thick plate of metal between his feet and the vastness of empty space. It wasn't a thought worth relishing in Koth's mind. He'd rather be on nice, solid ground relying on his own body instead of the abilities of the pilot and the integrity of a ship. But beggars couldn't be choosers, he needed to get to Dantooine and this was the only way of course. It wasn't like he could walk there.

"What if I could walk there though? No more damn ships." Koth began thinking to himself when he was interrupted by the pilots voice. "Hey, man, we're exiting hyperspace so hang on. It's going to get a little rough." "A little rough? Shouldn't be too much." Koth thought to himself, continuing his restful state on the bunk. A few seconds went by, nothing really happened. A few more went by and a jerk suggested that they had exited hyperspace and were now close to Dantooine. A couple more moments passed and a giant jerk, something similar to that of a huge fist hitting the side of the transporter, was felt.

Koth raised up and flung his hood back, uncovering his red and yellow face. He attempted to stand up when another hit, bigger than the last, was felt and it flung him to the floor. He quickly jumped back up and ran to the cockpit, hearing and feeling several more jerks and hits to the ship. "What is the meaning..." Koth didn't even have to finish his question when he looked out the cockpit window and saw a massive Interceptor bombarding their ship with small hits from the mounted blasters. They were in Sith space and this was possibly more than what Koth had bargained for.

"Well do something, now! You're suppose to be the pilot. Act like it!" Koth ordered the man, a small human male not much older than Koth himself. He began scrambling at the controls. Pushing buttons, pulling levers, twisting knobs. Koth couldn't even begin to understand what the man was doing, but he knew if he did something wrong then both of them would end up dead. "I'm trying, sir! But I don't know how much longer she'll hold up. Shields are at 25% and dropping. At this rate we may just have to hope for a crash landing."

Koth could see Dantooine, they were about to enter the atmosphere. Just a few more minutes and they would be just yards above the ground. This ship had to hold, it just had too! The transporter had mounted guns, but they were small and only shot from the front and the ship was behind them. Even so the tiny blasters couldn't affect the giant warship battering them from behind. Several more hits could be heard, quickly after the last one an alarm was set off. The blaring was loud, but the flashing red light was even more disturbing. "We're in the atmosphere but we just lost the shield! Hold on tight because the next hit is going to rock our foundation!"

Koth then heard a blast from behind, he twisted his neck around just enough to see flashing light and then the back half of the ship ripped off. The ship began to sway and rotate sideways, losing it's thrusters and frying all ship controls from the monstrous hit. The pilot started panicking frantically as the ship neared the ground. It was the crash landing he had hoped for, but he obviously wasn't ready for it. But since the Sith ship had backed away if they survive this landing them maybe they could survive the entire endeavor. Unlike the pilot, who was curled up in a ball crying on the floor, Koth sat down in the pilot's seat and awaited the crash. There was nothing he could do so he just accepted his faith. Mere seconds from impact he decided to protect his face with his hands, then a bright light and a loud, harsh sound was all Koth saw and heard before he blacked out.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom Jervada stood outside the headquarters of the Dantooine Liberation Army, macrobincoulars in hand as he watched what had previously looked like a meteor streaking through the sky. Through the electronically magnified image he could clearly see that the truth was much more interesting. It was a ship, a small one, coming back into the atmosphere at a steep angle, wreathed in flame.

The Republic medic turned resistance fighter was hardly an expert on ships or flying, but he could tell it didn't look good. No doubt the pilot was struggling to turn the crash into a landing, but he knew for a fact there would be injuries or deaths when it hit the ground, judging by the rangefinder on the binoculars, not far from here. And maybe he could do something for them.

Nom got a bearing on the streaking ship, gauging where it would come down, and he sprinted off to the garage in search of a vehicle, dashing around DLA members as he hoofed it, doing remarkably well for a smoker. Well, not that he'd been smoking more than a few years. His feet carried him all the way where he needed to be and he promptly yelled out the situation to everyone in the area as fast as was humanly possible.

"Ship went down near here, people might be hurt, I need to borrow a speeder bike! I'll be back soon or give a yell if I need help!"

With that disclaimer, he began a rapid search of his outdated Republic armor, verifying he had a comm link, and slung his best medkit over his back. Then he hopped onto one of the speeder bikes he'd so rarely had the occasion to use, and stared dumbly at the controls instead of going anywhere.

Hesitantly he looked around the room before gritting his teeth and looking back down at the controls, noticing one was clearly labeled 'ignition.' He winced and pressed the button, and promptly the bike came to life. He placed his feet on the paddles, hit the throttle, and promptly shot off like a bat out of hell, going far faster than he'd ever intended.

If he wrecked that bike there was a very good chance some of the DLA members might kill him. Of course he'd been meaning to ask Mo to teach him to use a speeder bike, but he hadn't been expecting it to be this hard. Slowly though he managed to find a balance between too fast and too slow, leaning with the bike as needed.

I'm on my way...

[Dalton]

A pounding head, hurt shoulder and the scent of burnt flesh were the first things his senses recognized as he came too. His right shoulder look pretty mangled, shards of glass and metal were protruding through. His had a nasty cut, but those were the only injuries Koth could sense at the moment. He wasn't on fire, as far as he could tell anyways, so where was the smell of burning flesh coming from he wondered. His answer was right below his feet, well half the answer anyways. Part of his pilot's legs were wrapped around his very own feet. Only part of his legs. They were ripped off above the knees and they were aflame. He could hear slight groaning coming from behind him. The pilot was alive, barely, but his condition didn't look great.

Koth tried to hop out of the seat to the man, but fell on top of him as his feet and the pilot's destroyed limbs were both melt to the base of the metal chair. Thankfully Koth could feel and wiggle all ten toes, so it was just his leather boots that were melt to the chair. But this still left him in a tight spot, laying on top of the pilot. He was legless and Koth not in any better shape. The ship was partly on fire, the fuel tank and thrusters were both lost when the blast ripped the ship apart so he wasn't in any danger of blowing up. Though he heard gunfire and ship movement in the distance. Was it the same faction that just blasted him out of the sky? Koth was uncertain but he couldn't take any chances.

"Stay calm, I'm going to figure out a way to get free and get some help. Just, err, don't get up and walk away when I'm gone." Koth tried wiggling out of his leather boots, but the straps were melted together and the base of the black boots were melted to the chair along with the pilots legs. So even if he managed to remove the boots from the chair, he would have an extra set of limbs to carry. So he should try to just slip out of the boots. Not an easy task when the shoes were practically melted together. The intense heat also melted away parts of his robes, showing some of his bare skin. Blood was also seeping through the wounds in his shoulder.

After a few more seconds of useless tugging and pulling on his foots he decided his saber was his only use. He propped himself up beside the unconscious, or maybe dead because he wasn't paying him any mind, pilot and grabbed his saber from his belt sash. He clicked it on and the humming sound woke the pilot up, seeing the purple laser protrude from the base of the hilt startled the pilot.

"Wha... What? You're a... A Jedi?" The disorientated pilot managed to whisper, using all his strenght to stay awake. "Ha! No. But that's all you need to know. Now this may sting but it will stop the bleeding and maybe prolong your life enough to eventually save it." Koth gracefully swung the purple blade across the bleeding wounds of the pilot, burning the wounds closed. The pilot screamed out in agony, but Koth was right and the bleeding stopped. This didn't help the pilot stay conscious though, the pain of the saber caused him to again collapse into unconsciousness.

Now it was time to address to his boots, he gently used the saber on the boots as someone would use a knife on a potato. Gently skinning the melted, ruined leather until he exposed his bare leg and feet. After a minute or so one foot was free and he swiftly began skinning the other boot, and the sounds of an approaching speeder bike only increased his speed.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom applied the brake and cut the throttle on the speeder bike, coming to a halt at a safe distance from the smoldering wreck. And smoldering was the right term. It had been sheared in half by stress, and the rear section was on fire while cables from the front section sparked menacingly.

All the medic's emergency training came back to his mind, how to avoid touching the wrong surfaces, how to perform triage. Of course he wasn't a doctor, even if he had been studying at medical school. Not yet any rate. But he'd do the best he could.

He took the pack off his back and jogged over to the site, coming face to face with a red Zabrak wielding a lightsaber and a human man lying on the ground missing his legs. Obviously one was in need of more aid than the other. Triage step one right there.

"Excuse me master Jedi," Nom said as he bowed his head deferentially to the Zabrak, as a means of acknowledging him.

He reached out to check the pulse of the human before holding him under the arms and dragging him away from the wreck and out into the soft grass of the natural surface. Then he started the real examination.

Ashen skin. But cauterized wounds. That would explain the lightsaber being out. He'd lost a lot of blood though, and that had to be dealt with first. Luckily Nom had plasma in his kit, and hooking up an IV wasn't something that took very long for someone with his experience. Finding the vein and inserting the needle was something he could do in his sleep.

Provided they kept up a steady supply of blood, it was entirely possible he'd pull through. After all, he'd survived the shock of it, which was the roughest danger. Man was made of stern stuff. And the Jedi must have been made of pretty tough too since he seemed to be unscathed.

With one arm elevating the pack of plasma, he turned his head to look at the Zabrak again.

"You OK? Any broken bones? Headache? Dizziness?"

[Dalton]

Koth was in the middle of skinning the last piece of leather from his leg when the human medic attending to the pilot spoke to him. His useless questions didn't concern him. He was now able to walk, barefoot mind you, and the cuts on his head and the shards stuck in his shoulder didn't hurt too bad.

Now able to stand he jumped up and quickly exhausted his saber, putting it back in it's home on his sash. "Master Jedi...? Errr, yes, human male. I am rather fine considering what I just went through, excluding the fact that I'm barefoot with some annoying glass and metal pieces lodged in my shoulder." Koth started looking the human up and down, he seemed rather average for a male his age. His pilot appeared as if he might make a recovery, yet he was still beaten up, but that the burning of his wounds was a good act on Koth's part. The medic, on the other hand, appeared that he was pretty confident in his abilities and his age was around mid-20s or so by his facial features. Koth looked around and saw a rolling grassland with a few trees, with some far off structures. He was on Dantooine, but why did the Sith shoot him down? Was this man part of the faction? If not what was he doing here and why is he helping? Questions that needed answering yet no one to answer them, except the medic right in front of him. If Koth played his cards right maybe he could get the answers from the man, one way or another.

Slowly moving closer to the two men he quietly gripped his saber under his robes, "So, after you attend to this man could you do something about my messed up shoulder? Also, I have some dire questions in need of answering, mister...?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"Specialist Jervada. But you can call me Nom," The human man answered as he jabbed a stick into the ground and hung the packet of blood from it to keep it elevated. Simple field solution, precisely the sort of thing you learned to do when there wasn't a spare pair of hands around.

A quick jab of a needle containing a painkiller into the man's arm and Nom rummaged through his kit for an antiseptic pad and a set of what were essentially rubber-handled pliers.

He rose and walked back over to the Zabrak, gingerly pulling away the tattered outer clothing and looking at the skin below with a frown. It was almost like shrapnel, dozens of glass and metal shards embedded in the flesh. Luckily his training had prepared him for this.

"This is going to hurt. Heads up. And ask me any questions you can Master...?" Nom prompted for a name as he began.

He reached out with the thin nosed pliers and grabbed the base of one particularly cruel shard, pulling it clear of the flesh and dropping it onto the ground. One down, about twenty to go. And to compound things there was a time crunch. He had to work fast before the Sith arrived. They wouldn't be at all pleased there were survivors. Not in the least bit.

Another shard joined the one on the ground, and another as his hands nimbly flew around the wound, somehow avoiding gaining any blood.

[Dalton]

Koth began to wince every time the man, Specialist Nom Jervada, extracted a shrapnel piece from his useless shoulder, "Master Durr, Nom. That's what you will call me. He shuddered as the man retrieved a particularly nasty piece of metal out from his wound, "Now answer me this: were you part of the group that shot me down? And no trickery either."

While awaiting the man's answer Koth took this time to actually gaze at his surroundings. He had crashed into a rolling grassland with small deciduous trees and shrubs. A building far off was vaguely visible. Perhaps this was where the man originated from?

The pilot, Koth didn't even take the time to remember his name when he picked him up on Iridionia, was still on the ground. His condition seemed rather stable for a man with no legs and was on a Jerry-rigged IV. "The man, will he be fine or should I just help him end this entire painful endeavor?"

By this point his shoulder has already done numb from the loss of blood and the pain, so Koth barely felt as the man continued to pull shards out from his shoulder rather elegantly.

He looked the pilot over once more and gracefully wisped the saber out from beneath his torn, burnt robes. The humming sound along with the flash of purple light was almost poetry to Koth's ears. He held the saber out to show to Nom he was serious.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"No," Nom answered as he pulled out another shard, "Sith shot you down. I'm not Sith."

As to the other question he blinked in surprise. Euthanasia didn't seem like a very Jedi thing to do. That was weird. Well luckily he was the medical professional with an oath not to do harm. And he knew his stuff.

"He's in serious but stable condition. If I get him away from here he'll probably pull through. No guarantees though."

The medic ran a hand through his blonde hair as he plucked out another shard. He promptly adjusted his hand and ran it over his stubble. He'd been a week without shaving, purely out of laziness. There were razors and water to be found. But he no longer had to, so why bother?

"We don't have long here anyway, the Sith will come raid this crash site as soon as they find it. And they'd look on a Jedi as quite the prize. When I was shot down here they murdered the other survivors, the wounded. Force only knows what they'd do to your pilot. Anyway, last shard is... out." Nom concluded as he tossed away a particularly cruel looking piece of glass.

"Speeder bike ain't gonna hold the both of you. This is going to take me two trips. He goes first since he can't move. Help me load him up onto the seat."

Nom walked back over to the wounded man and started to drag him over to the speeder bike.

[Dalton]

As the last piece of glass was picked from his bum shoulder he began to loosen up, he'd been tense for the last couple of minutes since the crash. He rotated it a time or two, it felt great to know he was no longer part metal. "I will be no prize for no man. Though do what you wish with the man, he is of no concern to me now."

Koth suggested as he walked over to Nom, placing an arm under the pilot and and his other hand on his shoulder and began to help pull him over to the speeder. "Wait, why am I helping this man with the pilot? He isn't of value to me, especially in this condition."

"Before you leave though you WILL tell me what the Sith would want with me and you WILL tell me how to get off of this rock. It seems I won't find what I was looking for." He dropped the pilot and retracted his saber, the purple laser shooting out from the silver hilt lit Koth's face up. His emotions started to soar. Highly annoyed from this entire endeavor.

"I am NO Jedi, now tell me how to get off this planet now." Koth demanded from the specialist. He had been irritated from the crash, even more so that he wanted help or information from the Sith and they were the ones that shot him down. Now he had this man here, some Nom Jervada, who insinuated that the Sith would take him captive. His mood only dimmed with time it. The only bright spot was he hadn't paid the pilot yet and despite being barefooted with some gashes and bruises he was rather unarmed.

Koth took up an attack stance, saber out in his right hand and facing downward. Ready to swing and slice at any moment. The man didn't seem too big of a threat, though his blaster could do a nasty bit of damage. He could of been the best shot in the galaxy for all Koth knew.

"I don't want a blaster hole in my face." He thought, causing him to quietly switch to a more defensive stance. He twisted his saber up and held it with both hands with the purple blade stretching across his face. He awaited there, reading Nom's body language for any sign of an attack.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom blinked in surprise as the Jedi promptly turned out to be not a Jedi, and he demanded to know all sorts of things. Like how to get off the planet.

It was very tempting to simply answer in a snarky way. After all, if he knew a way off the planet he'd have taken it by now. He wasn't a huge fan of being stuck on Dantooine, pleasant company or not. They hadn't even been able to get off a message to let the Republic know he was alive, least of all get anyone off the planet.

But he was staring at a weapon that could easily lop off all his limbs, and he had one blaster pistol on his side that he could maybe hit the broadside of a barn with. Certainly he didn't have any handy commando skills he could use here.

He decided to just toss his hands up into the sky and look as non-threatening as humanly possible.

"Steady on mate! I'm not the enemy here!"

Nom took a step backwards from the glowing weapon, bumping the backs of his leg into the speeder bike and falling backwards over it, a mess of flailing limbs. He promptly recovered and stood up again, now glad there was a large metal object in between him and the apparently Dark Jedi.

"I assumed you were a Jedi, and Sith don't like Jedi, right? So I don't know what they'd want with you now. And I don't know any way to get off this rock. If I did, would I still be here?"

It belatedly occurred to him that if he didn't say something there was a chance he could get gutted like a fish of some sort, which wasn't an appetizing thought.

"I'm sure the Sith have a base with ships though. You could always steal one?"

[Dalton]

A few chuckles escaped Koth's stern lips. Seeing the human tremble and stumble backwards at the sight of his saber was appealing to his sick, twisted sense of humor. But his words, they didn't help his situation any. He was now just as close to leaving this planet as he was when he crashed minutes earlier. His luck, already bad, would continually get worse as time progressed no doubt. But, how bad could it really be? He wasn't dead, yet.

"Steady yourself, no sudden movements or I start with your fingers."

Releasing a hand from his saber he closed his eyes and gave a small gesture, the speeder slowly began to move from in between the two. He may have spent the majority of his time training with saber combat, but he could still move a speeder bike with time. Another small gesture with his hand and it softly fell back to the ground.

"Now, with nothing separating us why don't you tell me exactly who you are and who you're with. And turn off that speeder bike, for Force's sake."

Then it was apparent that the engine noise wasn't coming from the the man's bike, but from the distance tree lines. The sounds were a ways away still, but gaining ground fast. With time the small sounds of multiple motors could be heard, some louder than others. Different sized craft perhaps? They were approaching from the opposite direction Nom had rode in from. Help maybe? Could he be so fortunate?

"Is that your people approaching from the rear?" Saber still in hand.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom cringed as he heard the sounds of repulsors coming from the opposite direction of where he'd come from. "No," he answered through gritted teeth as he looked around for cover. No time to run now They had to hide somehow.

The Republic medic grabbed the wounded man under his arms and pulled him as rapidly as he could across the ground towards a stand of trees and tall grass, covering the man with a few branches and obscuring him from sight.

He didn't have much in the way of leadership, but he had a hell of a lot in self-preservation.

"Hide that bike in the trees and get climbing, I think we might have to fight this one out... And we're better off doing an ambush."

Nom winced as he scampered off under the trees again. He jumped to grab a low branch and pulled himself up on top of it, promptly clambering up onto a branch higher still and working to position himself behind an especially leafy branch.

His blaster pistol was in his hand, and then he waited.

[Dalton]

Some action, about time. He stashed his saber and with closed eyes he slowly raised his hands, the bike slowly began to hover off the ground. Controlling the speeder he slowly maneuvered it into the thick grass, placing it beside the unconscious pilot. "Should do for now."

Before scampering into a tree he loosened what was left of his belt and Koth's robes fell to the ground. His chest and abdomens now showing. Teeming with both muscle and scarring alike. If he had to fight a possibly unwinable battle then he wanted to do it comfortably, in just his baggy black pants. Picking them up and throwing the discarded robes into the fiery ship was the best route, hiding Koth's presence.

He flashed toward the trees, leaping a few feet from a high branch and barely making it. He was able to grasp several fingers around the thick member, giving him momentum to swing up and over the branch and gracefully landing unto it. He was a hefty twenty or so feet in the air, and just from one jump. Granted tree climbing was his favorite activity when he was a youngling.

The leafy branches concealing both him and Nom were hopefully enough to provide ample cover for the ambush. Though how many people were en route toward the crash was unknown.

With saber in hand, repuslors and engines growing louder the two sat quietly in the tree. Mere yards away from each other.

"I shall keep an eye on this Nom character, I don't want to end up with a malfunctioned shot in my back." His thoughts started to race. Hopefully he wouldn't have to cut Jervada down along with some of the approaching soldiers. Then both men would surely die, everyone then losing.

The sounds seemed almost on top of them. Extremely loud. Then, sights of metal were vaguely seen as they passed through the thickets of grass a good cruiser lenght away.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom watched from behind the branches as the Sith speeders came to a stop, ugly bulky things that they were. Undoubtedly well armored though, which didn't much matter. With just his blaster even a tin can was protection enough for them.

The hatch on one of them opened and armored figures clambered out, six to be specific. Four of them spread out around the clearing, looking off into the distances, and in every direction but up, which was likely Nom's salvation.

The other two walked over to the wreckage and started to scrutinize it, peering inside, prying open doors and the like, searching intently. One thing was clear though. It seemed neither of them had expected survivors, least of all ones walking away. But apparently someone had in their estimation, since no one was around.

The two men walked back to the speeder and tapped the side. In response, the hatch opened again and out came a slender man in a soft uniform, an officer. The two explained their findings in clearly audible voices that wafted up through the branches.

"Lieutenant, there's no one in the ship."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, they'd have to be invisible in order to evade us."

The officer stroked his chin thoughtfully as if that was a real possibility. Ultimately he apparently decided it was.

"Get the scanners out from that speeder and use them. There may be Jedi about using concealment."

Up in the tree Nom glanced at Koth and mouthed words to him.

Do it now!

He held his blaster a little tighter and aimed it at the nearest enemy...

[Dalton]

Koth peered through the foliage at the ugly, bulky contraptions. They were well armored. His saber would take a great while to cut through them, so that was no option. Unless he had a wish to be a still target. Which he didn't. He had a fetish for living. They appeared to be slow moving armaments, even less nimble. Perhaps he could use the medic's speeder bike to evade them long enough to find a transporter? The pilot was already as good as dead if the Sith stumbled upon him on the ground and the medic more than likely couldn't hold his own if he was up against multiple foes. So perhaps slipping away on the bike was his best chance.

Looking over he saw Nom mouthing the words for attack. He gripped his saber with all his strenght, activated the magnificent weapon and slung the purple blade with pure elegance and grace towards the soldier scouring the high, thick grass near the wounded pilot below. The bladed sliced clean through the man's rather unguarded neck, it was in fact the few unarmored spots on his body, and returned to Koth's hand. The man froze in his footsteps, his helmeted-head started to slide across his neck and then flop onto the ground making a rather loud thud. His body the proceeded to do the same, making another even louder thud.

The loud noise disturbed the other soldiers' ears, causing curiosity in all of them to peak and turn towards the dead soldier. The thick grass he was in concealed his lifeless corpse enough where he was well hidden. They'd have to almost stumble on top of him to see his mutilated body.

"Shriek, Shriek you there! Stop funnin' and answer me now private!"

They'd receive no answer from their fallen comrade. They'd soon get one from Koth and his saber, however. Two more soldiers started to wander over to the dead soldier's location, hoping to find their missing private. They clumsily stumbled on the pilot, one tripping and falling over his corpse.

"Lieutenant...!"

The man on the ground scream out, while his partner stood speechless. Starring at the decapitated soldier. He was likely a fresh recruit, never seen a dead man before. Poor soul would now be a dead man.

Koth jumped from the branch, landed on top of the speechless soldier. His saber plunged deep into his chest cavity like a hot knife through butter. The recruit blinked furiously, gasping for air as he started mouthing soundless words while his life force slowly drained from his body. Koth expunged his saber from the man, his body falling hard to the ground. Koth looked up towards Nom's position in the tree branches and tilted his head toward the man lying on the ground. Still yelling pointlessly for the lieutenant.

Koth then slowly started his way toward the lieutenant and his men, saber moving swiftly his hand to deflect several rounds of blaster fire. Hoping Nom would soon have his back and draw some of the attention off him.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

With a shaking hand, Nom tried aiming the blaster pistol at the Lieutenant. He was nervous, bloody nervous, and he'd never actually been in a firefight before. And strictly speaking...

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to do this.

On Naboo in the Academy of Medicine he'd been lectured on ethics and morality, on not doing any harm. Out here though, it was kill or be killed. If he didn't pull the trigger, he might be the one dead by the end of the day.

It was an awful dilemma, but at the end of the day he had to live. That was the priority.

He squeezed the trigger, and with a report a blaster bolt shot out and hit the officer in the side. He spun around and fell to the ground, and immediately a volley of blaster fire streaked up at Nom.

One bolt hit him in the armor, and with a yelp he fell out of the tree, crashing down to the ground in a pile of limbs, hoping the Dark Jedi was doing better than he was.

He clambered to his feet and promptly squeezed off more shots, barely aimed, forcing people to cover only. He'd already shot one person, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do anything more than serve as a distraction now.

[Dalton]

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the Lieutenant drop to the ground, squirming in agony from Nom's only precise shot. Perhaps the medic wasn't as much of a liability than he first thought.

He continued to twist his blade in a deflecting fashion, red and blue bolts of laser bouncing off Koth's purple blade. The two soldiers ahead of Koth were just emptying clip after clip of ammo into his blade. He could deflect the laser fire without much of a problem, the occasional bolt catching the edge of the blade and drilling it close to his feet. He was now stuck in this position, forced to hold out until either the soldiers ran out of ammo, or that medic behind him would cap out a few more rounds.

"What in Force's sake are you doing back there? Playing with yourself? Shoot somebody!"

Nom's response was a series of random shots fired into the path of the soldiers. This inadvertently distracted the soldiers, allowing enough time for Koth to make a move and kill another one of the them. Decreasing their numbers. Before he could though a shot kissed his right arm, had the soldiers finally got lucky enough to hit him? No. The blaster shot only made contact with Koth because it came from behind, the dazed man hadn't really aimed when he fired. A rogue shot from his blaster had made its' way to the Iridonian.

"Errr, what the...? Whose side are you on, exactly?"

His right arm fell limp and he cautiously walked backwards, meeting the medic with a bump. Koth proceeded to size up the remaining foes. Two were dead, the Lieutenant was mortally wounded on the ground, and the remaining four were spread out around them. Encasing them in a circle of terror. The remaining soldiers were busy for a moment, reloading their blasters, but that moment had ended. Their weapons lowered, they starred at one another and then back at the two.

"Great." He raised his saber up with his left hand while the glowing, purple lightsaber was still on. He wasn't going down this easy. His right arm was dangling beside him lifelessly, the shot had all but crippled it for now.

The Sith quietly raised their weapons and slowly started making their ways towards the two men...

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom felt Koth bump into him, and managed to avoid jumping. These Dark Jedi made him nervous, with their lightabers and hairtrigger tempers.

He held his blaster pistol up and leveled it at one of the advancing troopers, and then he pulled the trigger again and again. The pistol bounced in his hand, the barrel jerking with each of his finger's pulls on the trigger. However four shots hit the man, most impacting harmlessly on his armor. One, however, hit the unprotected neck area, and he went tumbling to the ground.

Today Nom's body count had gone from zero to two.

Rina would not approve. But then again, his girlfriend wasn't likely to know. She was at the other side of the galaxy and out of the miserable pit his life had become.

How he missed her.

She was more than his friend, she was his soulmate. He understood her, she understood him. They had love. And unfortunately they were both so far from each other.

And now Nom had to trust in this Dark Jedi to keep him alive and deflect the remaining blaster shots.

[Dalton]

Koth was less annoyed by the medic every time he had managed to eliminate a solider. But far from impressed.

"With my bummed shoulder and arm, I couldn't possibly deflect three different blaster sources. What else, Koth, what else!"

With that thought he quickly deactivated his saber, tossed it in his sash and raised his left hand. He pointed it harmlessly toward the remaining Sith. With closed eyes looms of lightening shot out from his finger tips, hitting the Sith on the far right and bouncing off his metal armor toward the soldier closest to him. Their bodies tighten up, the electricity flowing through had constricted the muscles and started burning flesh.

Koth rarely had the chance to project lightening from his hands, so he relished the thought whenever he had the fortune too.

More and more moments went by, the smell of burning flesh was prominent. The smell was becoming so prudent that it was watering Koth's eyes. He couldn't stop though, his life was at stake and he wasn't losing it.

That was a total lie.

Koth didn't stop because of the simple fact he enjoyed causing these men pain. Enjoyed having control over their lives, how much they would suffer and ultimately how and when they would die. A smile was stretched over his face, from one ear to the other. His sharpened, yellow teeth appeared inside his smirk. He purposely filed them down to a point when he was a teenager, to help his image.

Koth was so busy burning the other two soldiers that he totally forgotten about the other. He was shocked for a couple moments from the sight, giving Koth ample time to vanquish his foes. The enjoyment streaking through his veins had overpowered him and he'd forgotten about the soldier.

A couple blaster shots reminded him over, one zooming so close to his face he felt the heat bounce the side of his head. He continued to fry the two men, hoping that maybe the other man could handle the last soldier.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Nom watched as lightning streaked out from the Zabrak's fingers, crackling through the air and wickedly dancing over two men, who ultimately fell to the ground. There was writhing in pain and screaming even, and Nom stood paralyzed in horror.

For a long moment he watched doing nothing whatsoever, and then the time came to act, to intervene somehow.

He reached out with confidence and shot them both, stilling their motion and silencing their cries. Given the circumstances it was the best that he could do for them. Mercy killing.

No one he knew on Naboo would understand. And if fate was kind, they'd never have to know.

However a shot came whizzing by him and reminded him that his good deed didn't buy him safety from the Sith. He ducked into a crouch and returned fire, sending shot after unaimed shot after the remaining man, finally bringing him down.

And then he crouched there, an uncertain look on his face as if he expected something more.