Hotsprings, massages, & hostage situations!

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

Strae heard the groan of metal, straining against some force. Then the screeching and grinding of steel against steel, and a horrid snap as the door was wrenched right out from in front of her. It slammed across the hallway. She blinked a few times, knowing this must be the force, and not really knowing what to make of it. At this point, she considered a hasty retreat. Dealing with the force was a nasty business, "Zelda, is that dark or light on the other side?" She asked.

Suddenly, she heard a door open, and Dorman taking a few steps. A lightsaber ignited. Strae could see the odd discoloration on the walls, glinting softly in the hallway light. Two shots from a slugthrower, Strae's quarry. Metal being wrenched, another toss. A loud bang. Someone was fighting against the one who had been shooting at Strae and Grizzelda.

In the distraction, Strae peeked out, to see dodging a thrown door of sorts. Her Arkadian blaster was up and forward. He turned around, Strae retreated into her cover, but not before firing twice with her blaster pistol, red bolts going straight for Dorman's chest. She saw that it was covered by a vest for blocking non-plasma rounds, like slugs. Sitting duck when up against Strae's weapon. Considering the high chance of enemies using blasters, she suddenly thought a bit less of her foe.

Taking cover and sliding away from the doorway, Strae was content in allowing whatever was attacking, or being attacked by, Dorman. After which she would try to reason with the enigma force user. Perhaps another force user might prove useful...Given the situation that every door was locked.

[Kella]

The metal screamed like a dying Maalraas, shrieks cutting into the air and clawing against Grizzelda's skull. She longed to snap her hands over her ears, but she was above being effected by such short-term discomforts. Suddenly, the shrieking ceased, and there was a moment of silence.
"Zelda, is that dark or light on the other side?" Strae asked.

Already, Grizzelda could feel the faint ripplings against her mind, more subtle than ink spilling across a black canvas. The impression was faint, untouchable. That sensation of the force could be compared to a dream... the memories were there, the information was there, but it just... couldn't be touched. Like Deja Vu. You know what you know, but you don't know why. Grizzelda had learned to trust such sensations, and so her answer came quickly, and with confidence.

"Dark Side. If he's on our side, splendid. If not, we can't expect any mercy." A smug smile curled across her face. "And neither should he."

A reflective band of metal trim snaked around the room, and it was this that Grizzelda watched. Where once she had seen the metal door, there was simply open space. And then with a shuddering crash, the vibrations of which Grizzelda could feel in her boots, the door connected with something else.

Grizzelda's eyes glazed over as she focused all her mind on the sounds that shivered through the walls. A lightsaber being drawn. Two slugthrower shots, and then the skash! of slug devouring metal. And then another shuddering crash!. Grizzelda wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but that hardly mattered. She had heard a lightsaber, and that initiated a whole new plan. A nimble shuffling of weapons, and she had holstered one heavy blaster, held another in her left hand, and her Verpine Shatter Gun in her right.

And you thought this was going to be a peaceful vacation.

Her blaster was charged, and her shatter gun loaded. Whether this new arrival, the one with the saber, would aid or attack, mattered little to Grizzelda. She was ready for both.

[Zabasaz Volgarius]

The drawback of Dorman's armor was that it lacked much defensive quality against weapons such as blaster pistols, which were extremely common and effective weapons. All it could do was cushion kinetic rounds, rendering him highly resilient to torso shots from opposing slugthrowers and similar such weapons. It only covered his chest, stomach, and back; most other body parts were small enough and that the torso was the only place that needed defense most of the time, especially if he kept the safest posture with respect to this. This drawback was completely and utterly intended by Dorman, however, who had the trained reflexes and martial prowess of a renegade Mandalorian. He made up for it by the fact that this vest did not hinder his mobility whatsoever, unlike the clunky sets other mercenaries put together. And if a man did his job right, mobility was all he needed.

This is likely what saved him from death at the fate of a metal door careening his way. He dove out of the way rather than side-stepping, which allowed him to similarly evade the shots fired by Strae, rather easily. A bold assertion to regard Dorman as the prey, when the inverse was true, given the position - the group was in a room without a door now, with a Dark Jedi Master and an extremely experienced gunslinger and warrior outside both looking to take them down, both knowing their exact location. When one dealt with the other, it was quite honestly the end of the line for the trio (Strae, Grizzelda, and the ship dealer whom Dorman could only assume had, too, lived.

Even more unfortunate is what happened.

After diving and evading the flying metal door and the blaster bolts, Dorman had fled down the corridor only a couple of steps before he turned around a corner at a hallway intersection. He had the high ground, as things stood, for both Zabasaz and Strae's team were cornered in rooms with exits that were right next to each other. From where he was positioned, he could safely fire around the corner at either of them should they peak or flee, and likely kill them before they even had a chance to fire a shot back.

Indeed, Strae and company were dealt with, but the Dark Jedi could hold a little more in the way of improvisation. Not only did his lightsaber offer protection against even his slug rounds (he knew this well from prior experiences dealing with Force sensitives wielding lightsabers) but the Force also offered him the ability to make his own exits, cover, or even means of attacking without necessarily putting himself in harm's way. The true was, Dorman had been a bit trigger happy in dealing with this potential comrade, simply due to the adrenaline pumping through his veins. Thus, he had to make things right to assure victory.

"Iridonian!" He yelled so that Zabasaz could hear him, though he likely couldn't help if anyone else did. "These are the ones we're after, so I propose a truce. We need to take this scum down." Dorman's figured by saying this, his quarry would get hesitant and try to duck out now, so he kept his gun trained on their door.

There was a momentary silent pause. Zabasaz was thinking; he was hard to forgive not to trust these xenophobic humans who also seemed apt to stab him in the back at the first given opportunity. But then if he was too busy eliminating Dorman, odds were the targets would get away. Sure, they'd be captured anyways by one of the other mercenary teams, but if Zabasaz didn't net them himself AND killed one of the officers, odds were things wouldn't end in the manner he was hoping.

Dorman also waited. Waited for an answer, which Zabasaz had thus far taken ten seconds and still not given. "Well," Dorman asked, wondering if he was heard.

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

( JUst a couple of problems here Zab. Thx for postin' btw, me's was gettin' bored, lol.

1. Your sequence of events are skewed. Dorman had already dodged and everything when Strae had fired, and he had just been coming out of his dive when he decided to look at Strae's room, probably to make sure that nobody would shoot him in the back.

Hearing the door to his left slide open, Zabasaz ignited his lightsaber and immediately enter the Form III mindset, and his choice was wisely made. Dorman, seeing it was his "comrade" only hesitated for a couple of seconds before mindlessly firing off shots at him. In this time Zabasaz was able to wrench the door he had pulled from 3028 in front of him with the Force. Two shots hit it, ripping through but their trajectories were off as a result and did no harm to Zabasaz. However it would be foolish to give the human a chance to make a third shot, so Zabasaz blasted the door at him with all of the telekinetic might he could muster. Dorman, who dove aside, was now in the deadly openness of hallway. Not eager to try and defend against a slugthrower, Zabasaz quickly lunged into Room 3026, not mindful of the danger of being cornered, and Dorman was left only a couple of feet from room 3025's entrance, at a corner in the nearest intersection. His eyes quickly turned to Room 3028.

Strae had fired right after the end of your post here, when he had barely recovered from his frenzied dive.

In the distraction, Strae peeked out, to see dodging a thrown door of sorts. Her Arkadian blaster was up and forward. He turned around, Strae retreated into her cover, but not before firing twice with her blaster pistol, red bolts going straight for Dorman's chest.

2. I understand that Dorman's a cool mando-esque type and I'm not saying to just get him killed off, but I think he's doing a bit of God-Modding for an NPC mercenary.

But don't worry, I'm not going to request that you edit anything, we'll just roll with it for now, just a bit of a heads up. You can edit how Dorman escapes down the hall if you want though. )

Strae heard what Dorman said. Not good, she poked her head out and said, "Dark Jedi." To get his attention, "Whatever their payin' you, I'll double...I'll triple it. I'm sure you could get me and my associates out of this mess quite easily. Trust me. We'll be a lot more trouble than we're worth if you attack us. With your abilities we could get passed automated security easily. Come on, three times as much as them...I'm willing to barter, too." She said, though she knew it might cost her. She took special care not to show herself.

Some force powers could be activated just on seeing someone. She figured Dorman would hear, but thought that fighting him over a Dark Jedi was better any day.

[Kella]

Grizzelda listened intently as she heard one of the adversaries talking. Casually discussing her demise, while she was a sitting duck.

Well, that simply wouldn't do.

Half of her mind continued listening, focused on what Strae had to say, the tone with which it was communicated. Grizzelda tried to predict how this would be received by the aforementioned adversaries, and if further action would be required.

It was best to assume further action.

Now, it is worth mentioning that this analysis only occupied half of Grizzelda's brain; for, you see, the female mind is infamous for its ability to multi-task. At the same time, her eyes were flicking all about the room, taking in every visual detail, every possible route of escape. She skimmed over the various bottles and canisters stacked on the cleaning cart, letting only the name of each product register before she moved on. One particular name caught her eye, but only for a moment. Easy-Off Zing! A memory shimmered at the back of Grizzelda's mind, lurking in the shadows, unbidden. That is, until, her subconscious deemed it worthy of conscious consideration.

She raced forward, her feet pounding across the metal floor. She could hear Aaron behind her, his footsteps much quieter than hers. He knew how to sneak properly, and Grizz envied him. But she didn't have time to think about these things; she was running for her life. Suddenly, Aaron's footsteps stopped. Grizzelda whipped around, he had surely been caught! But no, he was stopping... why? There was a shelving unit in the warehouse, all sorts of cleaning chemicals stacked in haphazard rows. What was so gorram important about those?

"Watch this," Aaron said quietly, face alight with an impish grin. He practically ripped the stoppers off two of the containers, then dumped the contents on the floor. Eazy-off Zing!, and Scrubbing Troubles they screamed in bold patterns. For a moment, nothing happened. And then, suddenly, the puddle on the floor began to bubble and writhe, a thick, acrid orange smoke rising into the air. Grizz turned to look wide-eyed at Aaron, but he had already taken off again. How had he learned that?! Her thoughts were again cut short as she took off sprinting again...

Grizzelda was tempted to reminisce; that theft had earned them quite the payload... but this flicker of memory needed only last less than a second before the information was processed and put to use. Her eyes were back on the cleaning cart, just as Strae was finishing her proposal. Where was it...
Ah, marvelous...
And sure enough, there was a dark blue bottle of Scrubbing Troubles. Nasty stuff, both the Zing and the Troubles. Harsh chemicals, and rather unexciting until mixed with other unexciting chemicals. And that's where the magic happened. She'd never gotten the chance to learn any more than the general science of the whole thing, but that was enough. If they needed cover, they had it. That smoke smelled something awful too, and it would definitely catch just about anyone off-guard. Granted, that would include Strae and their 'contact', but Grizz could work with that.

Silent, she slunk over to the cart, tucking one of the heavy-blasters into her sash, so she could grasp the neck of the bottles in her left-hand. And grasp them she did, her shatter-gun still in her right. She slipped behind Strae, and whispered so quietly only the woman and her earwig could hear. Her words followed just behind Strae's last.

"I have a smoke-screen, if we need it. It'll buy is fifteen seconds. V for Victory* if you seen an opportunity..."

She slipped back from the door as she finished speaking, grasping the bottles tightly. What she was planning was not simple, and it had the potential for error. But Grizzelda was used to being deadly-efficient, and today was not going to be her last.


ooc// * The index finger and the middle finger, raised in the shape of a 'V'. Like the number '2', or the 'peace' sign. //

[sparrow]

Step one: Clear the hallway.

The two outside seemed to have been distracted with trying to flush out the two women who had run into the nearby room earlier, as well as with each other. Just the opening she needed. She wasn't carrying as many armaments as any of the others, but with her experience and force training, anything could be turned into a weapon.

The metal door that Zabasaz had tossed down the hallway floated into the air once again, a bit wobbly at first, but quickly steadying and orienting itself so that it's wide side faced down the hallway, covering as much space as possible.

As Zarene entered the hallway, she gave a quick jerk of the head, and seemingly in response, the floating, beat-up door went hurtling down the corridor at high speed. It wouldn't be nearly as forceful as what the Iridonian could have done, but it was still strong enough to knock a grown man to the ground.

The door wasn't enough to cover the entire width of the hallway, of course. So Zarene gave one of the knives a quick twirl before sending it through the gap.

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

( Alright guys, bad news. Zab just left the forum. Partly my fault, partly because he really hated this place apparently. He took my last ooc comment too personally, saying it was an Ego-harmer and that I should have PM'd that, and said he had too much on his plate. He also thought some of us were powerplaying. [ Me and Grizzelda in the Hallway before this. ]. We're not going to discuss why he left, I just thought you should know. I extend appolgies to all, because of my bad planning we now a bit of a problem.

See Zab created most of those NPC's, and I'd need to ask permission in order to use them. So I'm going to have to change up a few names and things. Otherwise its a personal plagiarism and I'd feel bad about it.

So basically, we have to go back and fine tune a few things...If anyone has any ideas with what to do with Zab, please tell me. Right now, I'm leaning on kind of...Going back in time to right at the beginning of the Mercenary invasion, just dropping the parts with Zab and his mercenary crew. Individual characters and writing were Zabs ideas, but the way they infiltrated was mine, so we can still use the general gist. In fact, you and I, Kella, could just sort of go back to the hallway fight. What does everyone say? )

[Kella]

ooc// Oh dear. Well, now we'll have to get imaginative... lesse... What if we go ahead and keep everything, right up to the point where Grizzelda, Strae, and their contact duck into a room to escape the blaster fire. But, let us say that instead of finding an open door and an empty room, Grizzelda uses her security to slip into a room. Namely 3026, (Or wherever it was Sparrow's char is... I got confused. X) ) That way, they could stumble across her, and involve her/recruit her, or however that ends up working out. And then, perhaps one ally stronger, they could follow the contact and try to get to the central security area.

How's that sound? It might be worth starting a plot discussion thread, if only to keep things a bit more coherent IC... but whatever works for me, of course.

And on a somewhat amusing note... isn't the point of Random NPC's to be able to decimate them wholly in imaginative and entertaining ways? xD hehe. And you've never seen true GMing until you've seen my friend Steve... funny story, actually. But I digress. How's the above plot-ness sound? Or shall we do something wholly different? //

[sparrow]

(( Sounds good to me.

Yeah, NPC's generally are the cannon fodder so that you can have your characters do stuff that you normally couldn't do to PC characters. Though I do see the need to sometimes have an npc that survives first contact with the pc's...

Alternatively, we could try to roll with what we already have, kill off Dorman in a suitably dramatic fashion, have Grizz smoke the area, probably have Zarene stumble into the room. After that they could get into the maintenance hatch, or punch through a wall, or whatever it was they were doing before, leaving Zabasaz behind, not to be mentioned again for the rest of the thread. Sounds a bit more contrived though...
))

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

( Alright, Zab allowed me to control his NPC's, just go the PM...This means we're in business, and that we'll actually use Sparrow's contrived alternative...But how to kill Dorman suitably without further including Zab...Smoke screen it is. And we're not going to discuss the God-modding further in this thread. EOD. I think that, yeah, we should use the smokescreen idea. )

As the Dark Jedi struggled between the two decisions Grizzelda seemed started off toward a cleaning cart. Strae watched with intrigue as Grizzelda fiddled with some chemicals carrying them back toward the door, she perked and eyebrow after Grizz's comments, "Use it now while their in indecis-." She started, but then heard Sparrow moving around, and more action, "Use it NOW!" She urged, figuring another person in the hall. She turned and dashed away, not out of the room, but over to their contact.

She inspected him closely, seeing that he had minor burn wounds all over, and had been unconscious, he was awake now, though, barely moving, trying to get his bearings. Strae lifted him up by one arm up and onto her shoulder. She lifted him, and started headed for the door, "With hope they shouldn't fire in the cover you provide..."

[sparrow]

(( Need some clarification... is Zab allowing any of us to control the NPCs, or did he only extend permission to you? If it's the latter I'll need some sort of reaction from Dorman before I can post ))

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

( Ah, right, I forgot about this. Well, as things are its only me. For minor NPC's like the goons and the fodder, I'll let you guys take slight control for creativities sake, but I totally forgot about the knife throw, [ Okay, that's a lie, I just didn't think of it until after I had posted and was too lazy to edit ] so sorry, I'll post something with Dorman, who is not a minor NPC. )

Dorman was getting impatient with this guy. He didn't know if it was a personality thing or something that came with the force, but these Jedi types usually took for ever just to say anything. Of course, usually was not the case with DARK Jedi, but this one seemed to have the affliction. Dorman only had a bit of his head sticking around the corner, so when he saw the force being used, he could only, at first, assume it was his 'ally'.

However, a quick assessment told him otherwise, as he remembered the earlier force presence before this mans arrival, and of course, the opening of the door he'd been in earlier. He immediately popped his head back around the corner and into cover. A moment later a knife flew down the hallway digging into a wall further in. He spared it no time to watch though. It seemed the tables had slowly turned. Oh joy.

He kept his slugthrower primmed and ready, and after giving a moment for any more knives, he assessed that all opponents were against him. Quickly, he spun around the hallway, firing down it. Unfortunately the door was giving cover to them, floating around in the air. More slugs punctured right through, luckily not hitting anyone, their trajectories being thrown off once more. Had he kept at it, he might have hit someone, or even just destroyed the cover altogether. But Dorman didn't bring enough ammo for his favorite slugthrower, and so he had to be conservative with it. He ceased firing and watched carefully for an opening.

[Kella]

Grizzelda nodded happily at Strae's command. She was going to enjoy this...

Now, what was the best way to get the chemicals in the center of the hall, and mingling? A plan clicked together in her head... yes, that would do just fine.

"We'll keep going the way we were, which'll take us left out of this room. Just stick close to the walls," Grizzelda called back to Strae, who was now helping their contact. "This stuff'll burn right through your feet..." There was a certain awe, a twisted wonder in Grizzelda's voice as she spoke such. And then she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

Grizzelda bent her knees, placing the heavy bottles on the ground. They were full; barely used. A stroke of luck, or perhaps, a bit of providence from the Force. Either way, it worked for Grizzelda. The muscles in her shoulder grew taught as she shoved the brightly colored containers, watching closely as they slid into the hall with a fliiiiiiiiiiht. And then they were in the center of the hall, with just a touch of momentum--

Zhing, Zhing!

Two blaster bolts struck the bottles at just this moment. The wave of energy instantly melted the plastic, causing to warp and bend, to crack back. There was a millisecond, an unseeable moment when the liquid remained in the shape of its bottle. And then gravity slammed it to the floor, splashing outward, reaching the opposite wall, but leaving a three foot gap on the close side. Nothing happened. Scrubbing Troubles, if you've changed your formula, I have a bone to pick with your CEO...

The sudden hissssss of boiling chemicals proved that Scrubbing troubles had indeed been faithful. The mixture turned dark black as the metal floor began to corrode, a sickly foam frothing at the walls. And then the smoke began to rise, whisps of thick orange that soon grew to clouds. Grizzelda covered her face with a sleeve, but the slick tendrils that snaked from the hall burnt her eyes, and seared the back of her throat. It was nasty stuff, even if you were ready. She had faith enough in Strae to know that the woman would follow quickly behind, if she was able.

Unbreathing, she slipped from the room and into the smoke, closing her eyes. They wouldn't be of any use; the orange screen was opaque. Her fingers trailed along the wall as she took one, two three strides, moving left from the mouth of the door. One more stride, and she ought to be clear of the puddle... Unknowing of what action was currently occurring in the hall, Grizzelda dove to the floor, rolling until she came up on the other side of the hall. A step, and she'd touched the opposite wall, her bearing set. And then she sprinted forwards, until she could no longer feel the hot smoke on her skin. Opening her eyes, but still sprinting, she slipped her fingertips from the cold metal of the wall, for her vision was clear. She spied another alcove, similar to the one she and Strae had taken refuge in, and her she ducked, crouching low to the floor. When Strae passed, she'd join the woman. If, that is, Strae was not directly behind... Grizzelda tuned her ears to listen for further commotion...


ooc// Made some assumptions here... but if anyone wants to take it in a different direction, do something different, back track, just let me know. ;D You guys know I'm flexible. //

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

( Attention: WHEN GOING INTO BATTLE, BE SURE TO PROPERLY ARM YOUR EWOKS WITH LARGE AND SHARP ENOUGH STICKS! )

Strae listened to the fizz of the cans, the boiling sound as the chemicals reacted violently toward one another. And then the smoke, the choking, deadly smoke.When it hit Strae she almost gagged. But she quickly reached her free hand up, covering her face and nose, and eyes and mouth. She didn't breath she just heaved the struggling man in her arms and started moving as quick as possible, forcing him along too.

They came out into the hall, unable to see. But Strae didn't need to see. She was only slightly disoriented, but she knew the works of these halls. She took a left.

Damn. Something she didn't know. A door was floating up in the hallway, flying forward at deadly speeds. Strae could hear the swish of wind above her. She was low already though, expecting or wary of some sort of blaster fire, the wind above her and the swish made her hair stand on end. She strained, closing her eyes even tighter as the fetid odor and burning feeling invaded her eyes. She practically dragged the man along, not being too strong, and him not being awefully cooperative. She struggled, picking him up and hauling herself down the hall. However, she made sure to keep him right behind her, in case any stray blaster or slug were to...

Finally she opened her eyes, and found that she was at the frayed edges of the smokes range, and could somewhat see. She went around the corner, but turned the wrong way, not knowing which direction Grizzelda had gone, and not being able to see her since Grizzelda had actually been much, much faster.

Strae moved down the hall at a somewhat sluggish pace, wanting to drop the extra load as fast as possible. She came to the end of the second hall, and froze in place at the sound of boots around the corner. Quickly, she laid the man down on the ground and reached into his pocket. She found in her hand, a key. Not any room key, but a master key to all the rooms. She smiled. Crafty.

Quickly, she left his body, ducking behind her a few steps, then picking a door. The men coming down the corridor were the same merc's from before, though she couldn't know. She assumed, and rightfully. However, they were too far down the hall to hear the gentle sliding of the door. Strae quickly closed it and snuck into the room, finding a nice little couch to duck behind. She'd have to pay the security cameras a visit later to try to reunite with Grizzelda if she had to.

~*~

The mercenaries came around the corner, and almost tripped over the unconscious body. The first one, a rather large trandoshan, sneered and said, "What happened to this one?"

"Who knows," The second in command of this motley crew, Bathi-Sav, a Cathar, hissed out, "Rex, Tam, take this guy down to the Lobby with the other hostages."

Two men moved to pick up the body, lifting him and stumbling off. The mercenary squad, down four or five from their original count of five, stormed forward, heavy boots clacking loudly.

~*~

Dorman coughed a few times at the smoke drifting toward him, "Damn." He cursed, hating that he hadn't brought his heat vision goggles with him now. He knew that if he stayed here, he might be a sitting duck, so he retreated down his hallway a few feet, stopping at an alcove and turning, ready to shoot anything that came around the corner.

[sparrow]

(( errr... probably my fault for not phrasing it more clearly, but the door isn't floating. Zarene is using it as a heavy projectile. it's moving... fast. Probably wouldn't want to duck under it. ))

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

( Hmm, I thought you had said that she was using it to block the hallway. Alright, thanks. We'll just change that up a biiiiiit. )

EDIT: FIXED! Although, since Dorman had fled down the hall, we'll just say that neither the knife nor the door hit him, and not go back and edit. Because I'm lazy.

[sparrow]

Her attack seemed to have hit only air, but the objective was accomplished. Whoever had been in the hallway had tried to return a few shots, all of which had been wildly off mark, before scurrying down the corridor. Good. That'll do.

A bottle was tossed into the hallway. What the-- ? The hallway was suddenly filled with smoke and nauceous fumes. Quicky covering her nose with her sleeve, she dove for the nearest open room that she could find, hoping to escape from the affected area. Reaching a clear area, she broke into a fit of coughing, as her lungs, both the organic and cybernetic parts, struggled to get clean oxygen back into her system.

There was a flicker of movement from the corner of her eye, and she reacted before even taking time to ascertain exactly what was there. Latching onto the nearest piece of furniture, a coffee table, with the Force, she hurled the object across the room at the source of the movement.

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

Strae, far away from the area that Sparrow was in by now, heard the great shatter of the table. So did the group of mercenaries. "You hear that?" The first one asked in a rustic voice. "Come on!" He turned around the corner, and saw the smokescreen, they all retreated once more, staring down the hallway, some of them choking, "It came from in there." One of them said, but nobody was willing to go in. "We'd be blind. Let's wait it out, the air-conditioning should lift it in a minute or so."

Strae heard the last of the footsteps crawl passed, and then she heard more, the sound of a man being dragged, the footsteps of two men being strained with an unconscious body. She gave it a few seconds, and slid the door open. She popped her head out. All of the mercenaries were thoroughly focused on the smokescreened hall, each craning his head to try to see through.

Morons. She crept away, out of her room and around the corner, down a different hall. She was now out of sight from the others, but there was a more pressing matter. In front of her, down this hall were two fully armed mercs. Distracted for now, and dragging a heavy load. Strae narrowed her eyes. She's let them take a few turns...Trail them, then get 'em at the elevators. Yes, plenty out of ear-shot.

She moved from alcove to alcove. They were easily spaced down the hall, with only a few between the rooms. It afforded her good cover, and she ran swiftly but silently down each hall. The poor mercenaries didn't have a clue.

~*~

As Strae had been escaping, Artemis Entreri watched with an amused smile. She had separated from her little group now, having the unconscious man taken away. She came out of her room, he watched, and went down the hall, fooling the simple mercenaries. He chuckled, "She's separated from her subordinate." He replied, not really knowing that Grizzelda wasn't just another one of her spies. "Hmm...Don't tell them about Strae...Or the other spy. Allow the fools to move through as they will."

"All right." Ven said, frustrated, "Can hardly see a thing with that smokescreen anyway. Very crafty. If we're not careful, they'll be reaching us as well."

Artemis laughed, "At which point I'll not be here."

Ven eyed him slightly, "You don't plan on leaving me to die, do you?"

"Actually, I do. Don't worry, you're a crafty one as well, Ven."

Ven Alstra was indeed crafty. But...Something about these two seemed different. Something told her that no matter how crafty she was she wouldn't beat these two.

Especiall given they were main characters, and she was just an NPC. ( OH NO I BROKE THE THIRD WALL! XP Disregard that lastest line. Sorry it took Soooooo long, my muse was empty. )

[Kella]

ooc// Not the third wall!!! D: *scream of terror*
*breaks down into laughter* xD //

Grizzelda didn't immediately see Strae pass, and so she assumed the woman had taken a different route. A smart move. Strae was stealthy enough that even Grizz would be hard-pressed to find her. And it would have been a waste of energy anyway; their destinations were the same; the central security room. Now separated from their Contact, Grizzelda needed to find the one thing that would prove invaluable; A computer terminal.

There was no sound in the hall, and so Grizzelda took off, sprinting quickly, her slippered feet making hardly a sound. And then she heard it.

Whirrrrr, Click! zzzing!

Grizzelda dove out of the way of the turret's blast, twisting about and training her blaster on the column, before letting loose two quick shots. The turret smoldered. Luckily for her, these turrets weren't anything special; they were mostly used in the event of mild quarrels or machinery malfunctions. Anything with armor, or a shield, and Grizzelda would have found the whole process far more difficult.

She raced down this hall, left here, right there, listening intently for the whirr of the turrets, so she could shred them before they had the chance to fire. Still, she wouldn't be able to keep this up forever...

Ah! That's what she wanted. A locked door, blended into the decor; a service hall. Surely there was something of interest here... Grizzelda extracted the small blade from her sash, and used it to pry the cover off the control pad. Three wires here, two wires there, strip this, snap that... Finally, she touched two wires together, and the door hissed open.

She sighed, disappointed at the success. "That was far too easy... Really Grizzelda, you need to break into another laboratory one of these days. Now that was actually a challenge." These places were designed to keep out nosy guests, not professional rogues with fifteen years of lock picking experience. An amateur could have opened such a lock; it was blasphemously simple. Still, she was in, and Grizzelda let the door close behind her as she looked around the small space.

On the left, there was a bar and kitchenette; no doubt a place where certain fresh cuisine could be prepared for the guests. On the right was an interface panel. Now that could be useful... Shadows clung to everything; the lights were so dim as to be nearly nonexistent, and the place smelled of cleaning chemicals and alcoholic drink; no doubt the two major services rendered. She stepped toward the panel, but was cut short by a low sound, the slightest of whimpers. Grizzelda turned her eyes toward its source, and what she saw made her sigh, ever so slightly. A young Twilek waitress was curled up in a corner, her knees to her chest, staring with wide frightened expression at Grizzelda. Her eyes flickered to Grizzelda's three weapons, and she shrunk back further. "Please, please don't hurt me!" she cried, almost sobbing.

Grizzela's face was gentle, as it so rarely was. Contrary to encouraged belief, she did have a softer side, and now she let it be seen. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said, "The ones who scared you; I'm trying to stop them. Tell me, what does this console do?" She gestured to the one behind her. The Twi'Lek was silent for a moment, and then she spoke softly. "We use it to register our time stamps, and to see what the customers are ordering. They... they have a panel in their room, and what they order shows up here, and we... we take it to them."

Grizzelda nodded. "Thank you. Now, you stay here; do not leave. You should be safe. Be brave." Slowly, the girl nodded, and her trembling eased ever so slightly. There was a strange... echo in Grizzelda's gaze as she shifted her attention to the console. As if she was thinking about something far-off... but that echo faded to cold focus as her fingers flew across the panel. It seemed to connect to the main server, which meant that she could access some higher hierarchy from here... But more importantly, it would contain a schematic of the whole facility, for the purpose of delivering services. Grizzelda pulled up these holograms and skimmed through them, the blue light dancing on her face in the dim hall. She committed as much as she could to memory, preserving general ideas and useful landmarks. And then she tried to access the security protocols... she needed to shut down the turrets. Grizzelda corrupted a timestamp, and set it in... she waited with bated breath, to see if the trickle connection had been made... Ha! perfect. Unfortunately, she soon found out that the security measures had been locked down by the current emergency status.
"Well Damn, and that was a good idea too." Her face grew serious, thoughtful for a moment, before a smug smile lit it once again. "How 'bout parameters?" It was as she had suspected. The instructions for the turrets relied on an independent protocol server; a server which hadn't been locked down. Which meant she was able to switch the targeting pattern to designate all organics as friendly. Granted, she had to program the new hostility as droids, which the mechanical cleaning staff would not find amusing, but Grizzelda found exceedingly so. Strae would be greeted by the pleasant surprise, though it had taken Grizzelda a full seven minutes to complete that particular hack.

A lot can happen in seven minutes.

Armed with her new knowledge, Grizzelda took off down the service hall, mentally counting the branches as she passed them, keeping track of which sectors she was in, and which she had passed... She was like a virus, lurking through the inner veins of the Facility, driving her way toward the core, the heart, with the singular intent of taking it out. She passed a few staff members, hiding here and there, but did not spare the time to offer them any words. They watched her fearfully as she flew past, but said nothing.

As she ran, Grizzelda had two minutes to think. Not about strategies, or plans, but about that poor Twi'Lek girl. Was she a slave? Or had she chosen this life? Grizzelda felt a rare sympathy for the poor creature. Well, that wasn't entirely true; sympathy wasn't rare. Empathy was something she was good at; a requirement when you're a persuasive talker. But she hardly ever let that soft side of her show. It wasn't out of nobility, or humility. It was out of fear, in a way, but not even that. Wariness, then, caution. There had been a time when she had let the wrong person see that soft underbelly. And he had shredded her, and she had bled. And Grizzelda did not want that to happen again. And so only the helpless saw that part of her, only those that had no weapon with which to strike. Innocent, fearful ones like that Twi'Lek.

And yet, there was little time left to think of these things, for Grizzelda had reached the service entrance she had been looking for. This one mirrored the first, with console and kitchenette, and a dull plaque labeled it A36. She pressed her ear to the hall door... she heard steps behind her, faint in the hall, but those were most likely more of the staff, shuffling about. No noise of interest drifted from the hall... Grizzelda slipped her knife into the crack of the door, and tripped the switch. The door slid open, and Grizzelda was blinded a moment by the sudden light. And then she began to look around...


ooc// It's possible that Grizzelda came out near Strae, or out of sight, and also possible that she just opened the door next to a group of mercs. Also, it would not have been hard for Zareane to follow her, especially considering the woman's Dark Jedi training, and the fact that Grizz didn't bother to lock the first door behind her. Or something else entirely, of course. ;D //

[Deceit *Drinker of Jawa-Juice*]

There was a lot of blood in the elevator before Strae. Her original intention had been to kill the two guards and get her contact out. But an opportunity that was just...Too good to resist had presented itself. She'd tracked the two for a long time, following along the corridors. In fact, their progress had been made ever so slow when the contact awoke fully and started thrashing about. He'd even gotten out of their grasp, almost away from them, but a blaster set to stun had knocked him back to the ground. That had been a close call for Strae as well. When the two Merc's walked over to pick him up, they were only inches from her.

And finally they had arrived at the elevator room, when, DING! A door slid open, and five heavily armored mercenaries; none of which were green by any standards, stepped out of the elevator. There was a short conversation. Strae was only down the hall, hiding around the corner. As they discussed, she slipped closer in, coming around the corner and using a few of the decorations, a couch and some chairs placed for waiting visitors ( Sometimes it took a while for the elevator to be called ) to be comfortable. She was only a few feet from them.

And one of the two had dropped their unconscious prisoner to the floor as they did that; fiddling with a cigar and a lighter. As he did so, the fool, the green fool, had been careless. he burned his finger and let the lighter fly off and away. It had landed right next to Strae, just outside of the couch. The mercenary sighed as the others spoke with each other, walking over to grab the lighter. He was bedning over to grab it, his head just barely behind the couch, when he saw Strae. It was the last thing he'd ever see. Strae didn't immediately kill him. His helmet wasn't a full face visor. It allowed his mouth, nose, and eyes to be free. Strae reeled her hand back and sliced horizontally forward, slashing out both of his eyes.

The mercenary had reared by, screaming and holding his bleeding face in pain. Blood was flying everywhere, and he stumbled into the others in the confusion. But before he had fallen back, he had stood close enough for Strae to lean around the couch and catch a glimpse at his equipment. She reached forward and had grabbed a flash grenade off his belt line. The other mercenaries had, of course, immediately asked waht was wrong. The leader of the five newer merc's pulled out his carbine and said, "Fan out, all aim at the couch, let's get this done qui-"

A small, round ball flew into his face then, and exploded in a brilliant flash of light. All of the mercenaries floundered then, deafened and blinded. Strae rose from her position, Arkadian blaster firing wildly. She took out two mercenaries who'd gone off to the right, shooting as quick as she knew how. The blasts hit them easily, square in the chest. Despite their armor, it melted through, and both lay dead on the ground.

Strea launched over the couch and went forward, quietly. She fired her blaster point blank into the face of the second mercenary that had dragged her contact away. Only four merc's left. The blinded men scattered, trying desperately to get their bearings and trying not to get shot, for it was apparent by now that they were certainly being shot at. The final three that didn't have their eyes slashed out could see silhouttes. This included Strae's and their own.

At first they hadn't known what they were looking; but it was apparent that there was one figure standing before them, coming toward them. Little did they know that Strae had been fast, already joining the three, and shoving one of the poor merc's outward, he'd immediately come back toward his group, thinking safety in numbers. The two Mercenaries that were on Strae's side of the room had no choice but to assume this merc was their attacker. As they retreated backward into the elevator, they raised their weapons and let fly. The poor bastard didn't last more than a few seconds, writhing in pain, smoke rising from his body.

They had retreated into the elevator, and Strae had joined them. The door closed before them. And they leaned against the elevator, rubbing their eyes. "What the hell just happened!" One of the two shouted. The response was a loud gurgle as Strae's knife dug through his comrade, straight through a very high pressure blood vein too. In Strae's defense, the armor made it harder to tell where you were stabbing. The knife vibrating and cut clean through the the neck and the rest of the armor, unsheathing.

The final Mercenary figured it out, his eyesight back now. He raised his weapon, but Strae reached forward, grabbing the barrel of the gun and tossing it aside. Holes were punched in the wall beside her, and Strae could feel the heat from the barrel. She raised on leg and smashed it into the groin of the mercenary, then lifted it to his chest and pinned him to the wall, at which point she had brought her knife hand forward and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed, stabbed.

All this had eventually led to where Strae and her contact, revived from his lil' slumber, were staring from the couch at the seven dead mercenaries, blood leaking in several areas, especially from the two vitctims in the elevator. The contact cocked his head, leaning it sideways as if the new view would get him a better understanding of something. "Hmm..." He muttered, "Just one flash grenade."

"Don't underestimate the confusion a single flash grenade can cause." She muttered. They took one last look at the mass of blood and bodies. Strae grinned, she looked right up to the camera inside of the elevator, and winked. She literally winked.

~*~

Artemis stared, flabbergasted at the work she had done. She moved quietly and gracefully, and improvised well, especially with grabbing the grenade off her first victim. Or perhaps those were just the worst mercenaries he'd ever seen. But when Strae looked dead into the camera and winked at him, he almost blanched. It was a show. She'd known that he was watching. Ven Alstra began to laugh at him, then sheepishly stopped as he turned to her and glared, "Your the one who has to deal with her later." He said.

"What is she doing now?" Ven asked, perplexed.

Strae turned to the side, suddenly, and pulled out her Arkadian blaster. She raised it, and blew out the camera in the elevator.

~*~

The contact jumped surprised as the access door opened up to their left, just down the hall, and Grizzelda's head popped out, looking around. Strae turned to her, silently, then turned back to the camera on the elevator. No need to let them know that Grizz was here too...She shot it out, then turned to the left again and said, "Zelda dear, I'm afraid you've just missed the fun!"