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Sir Aaron
Ex-President of the Internet
163 posts
0 likes
Always looking for answers.
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last online Oct 17, 2010 21:06:50 GMT -5
Padawan
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Jul 2, 2010 21:51:20 GMT -5
Post by Sir Aaron on Jul 2, 2010 21:51:20 GMT -5
Five years ago…Trouble seemed to be brewing with the Anzati, which meant the scum of the galaxy, big and small, were going to be crawling over this bounty like a krayt dragon on a herd of banthas. But brushing all thoughts away, Johnis watched as the datapad scrolled down over the details of the bounty he was after. Volne Tiris, Anzati Assassin Master
A well known Anzati Assasin, named Volne Tiris, with his cadre of ten fully-trained assassins and roughly twenty students are stationed in an assassin training facility. The training facility is located high above the surface of Anzati, on one of the tall peaks and has been in operation for quite some time. But several dozen of disappearances have lately been traced back to the Anzati facility.
After an agent was sent down to investigate, rumors were proven, at the cost of the agent’s life. People are being kidnapped and used for a sport for the Anzati students and for high rollers willing to dish out large chunks of money to hunt for sport. Betraying the 'honorable' Anzati arts of the hunt and assassination, and have begun murdering for sheer sport, running a 'game preserve' that other Anzati pay exorbitant fees to hunt these sentient beings that are trapped there.
The hunting ground is located in the valley next to the training facility, on the planet’s surface, which is why it has gone on undetected for so long. The facility has had a city grown up around it over time which increases risk of mission. Two of my best and dearest men have been taken from me, and I want vengeance for their lives! Your goal will be take care of Volne Tiris, I will accept him dead; triple what I offer if he is alive. 35,000 will be the final payment for a reward, in cash, upon turn in.
Good business, Zoras.Zorast was a big time, Falleen crime lord, and he offered a lot of money. Though, Johnis’ main purpose for taking this one was to help build his name up. He knew if someone like Zorast mentioned his name around to other bigger crime lords, eventually he’d be doing some nice jobs with excellent pay. He knew this was possibly one of the stupidest missions he had ever taken up, but that was beside the point. Vrune wondered from the back of the ship into the cockpit, sitting down and lying his head on Johnis’ leg. Johnis patted the strill’s head. “There, there boy, I know you can sense it. I am nervous; you can’t believe how terrified I am. But I am sorry; you can’t come along on this mission. This one is far too dangerous. Even for my own self, but you know we need to do it, it will be a big boost. I promise I’ll be fine” Johnis said as he slowly brought the ship down, descending into the atmosphere of Anzati. As the ship came closer, it began to slowly descend until finally it came to a sharp halt as its repulsor lifts lowered it to the surface. Here was where the fun began… Johnis stood up and headed towards the back of the ship. He began to suit up into his Mandalorian armour; then grabbed his sheathed beskad, attaching it to his belt, a few blasters, and a thermal detonator in case things got too ugly. Happy with his choice of weapon he looked back at Vrune. “Watch the ship while I’m away and I promise you a special treat” Johnis said as he lowered the back hatch of the ship and stepped over, closing it back. He was far enough away from his target; he knew they wouldn’t be able to sense him. But the thought of having to walk along the cliffs didn’t strike him as much fun. But he wanted the element of surprise, after he scouted everything out, and once he felt he was ready, he had the upper hand for the time being. So he crossed along the rocky ledges, careful to watch where he went and using his foot to feel ahead for any lose spots. After about half-an hour of this method of crossing over he had made it and the academy was nearby. There were two of the Anzat standing outside the compound and all ready he knew it would be trouble getting in. He crawled along a small ledge to the side of the building where he climbed in through a high window. He stood in an empty dark room, it was empty except for weapons on the surrounding walls and a square pit that took up most of the room in the middle. It must have been where they would practice. “Let the games begin…” Johnis muttered.
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last online Aug 9, 2010 20:56:11 GMT -5
Youngling
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Jul 3, 2010 1:48:02 GMT -5
Post by KnightOfTheOrder on Jul 3, 2010 1:48:02 GMT -5
The night air was crisp and cool, and carried a certain stillness to it that Jedi Knight Ginh Su-Nyf had come to consider tension, as that exhibited by a predatory feline the moment before lunging at prey. Despite the apparent beauty of the pristine mountains of Anzat and their interspersed villages, and in defiance of the serene and calming beauty of the auroral lights above, every aspect of life on Anzat had an undercurrent of savagery.
When Ginh had first managed to reach the world, a feat which had required a quite liberal passage fee to a freighter pilot hauling goods from one of the orbital trading outposts to the surface, he had received a warning as he left the ship. “Don’t let yer guard down, friend,” the pilot had told him before opening the exit hatch, “Not even fer a second. Even the flowers’ll bleed yeh if yeh give’m half a chance.”
Ginh realized that he had to take the spacer’s warning with a grain of salt. With its white snows and red bamboo forests, dark swirling mist-filled valleys and incandescent aurorae separated by the jagged white teeth of distant peaks, Anzat was a world of exotic beauty and undeniable danger - but he had yet to see the flora exhibit any carnivorous traits. The fauna were another matter, of course. Specifically the Anzati, who had evolved to consume the life-force of sentient beings and were none-to-subtle about their predatory nature while on their homeworld.
More than one Anzat had shown more than passing curiosity at the uncommon site of an offworlder on Anzat - and a few had shown their hunger openly, one even going to far as to shadow him for a time as if stalking prey. Thus far Ginh had managed to keep them at bay by projecting deterrent thoughts and feelings, much as he had learned to dissuade nonsentient predators like the Choa mountain-cats of Iktoch during his time as a padawan. Thus far none of the Anzati had attempted to make a meal of him, but Ginh never let down his guard when outside the room he had acquired in the spaceport’s offworlder hotel - a fortified building that offered protection to non-Anzati who needed a haven while they conducted their business on the world.
Ginh had come to Anzat on the trail of a string of disappearances that he had been following around the Mid-Rim. The trail was hard to establish at first - nothing save the intuition granted by the Force seemed to establish any connection. On Zeltros four humans, two twilek and a zabrak were reported missing over the span of four days, though none appeared to have known or, for that matter, even met each other. Several weeks later, six wookies were reported missing after the had been on nightly sentry duty - something that would normally cast suspicion on neighboring Trandosha. However, days later, fifteen Trandoshan disappearances occurred.
Ginh had not known what to make of it exactly - however the Force seemed to bring these reports back to his attention during his meditations, and a string of missing bothans soon joined them. While on Bothawui, Ginh began to pick up on a pattern - each of the missing individuals had been part of the Bothan Special Forces at one point in their lives, most were discharged the last five years. Looking back through the missing person reports he had gathered from the other worlds, he noted that the wookies - while not of a unified military organization like the bothans - were all considered prestigious warriors and hunters. Likewise the Trandoshans were all noted as accomplished wookie-hunters, and the various sentients that vanished on Zeltros were all veterans of one military or mercenary outfit or another.
As Ginh tried to determine if they could have a common enemy or who would selectively be targeting warriors of various species, an slave ship had turned up over Nar Shaddaa. Both the cargo of slaves from Gamorr and the slaver crew were missing, but the hulking corpse of the upstart Hutt that had been running the outfit remained. It had taken some effort to acquire the reports filed on the ship’s recover and the dead Hutt, but it had been effort well worth it. The reports indicated the young Hutt had been found with his skull cavity vacant, a clear indication an Anzat was involved.
From there Ginh had traveled Anzat and began to ask some selective questions around the handful of orbital trading outposts that had begun to be constructed to facilitate trade while keeping the traders safely away from the local Anzati. His questions yielded little information, but he had found over the years one did not always have to get answered to get answers. Often letting it be known that one was asking questions was enough to prompt those with answers to bring the answers to you.
It was an anonymous message, delivered via a nondescript data card left with the desk of the trader hostel in which he was staying, that set him on the path to the surface of Anzat:
“Your answers are at the fumeiyo Tiris Kyroushu-kuruu,” it read. As the latter half appeared to be in Anzati, the data card initially had provided more questions than answers. With diligence, though, he had found a man who advised him that a Kyroushu-kuruu was what the Anzati called the schools that were formed around the noted master assassins of Anzat, and that it likely referred the school compound around which the small city of Tirisanto had been built.
A large payment for passage had bought him a small compartment on a cramped freighter for a short trip that still seemed to take too long. Once he disembarked in Tirisanto, he acquired a room at the small offworlder hotel under the guise of a traveling, and seemingly foolhardy, sentientologist from the University of Coruscant and spent his days interviewing the locals. While his questions were hardly probing they did provide some interesting information - the Tiris Kyroushu-kuruu was closed to outsiders (he noted the locals did not refer to is as fumeiyo like his anonymous lead had, and when he asked a few of the locals about it a wave of hostility preceded an abrupt end to the interview, leading him to think the term was pejorative), that there were no slaves on world, that there had been an increase in traffic from both Anzati and offworlder tourists, etc… Few would speak to him at all, and most of those seemed to be trying to entice him to continue the conversation somewhere private, which he did not need his danger sense to know was a bad idea.
By night he would sneak away from the offworlder compound - an explicit violation of laws put in place to protect foolish offworlders as the Anzati wanted as little attention as possible drawn to their practice of consuming the ‘soup’ of sapient beings - and began scouting the town surrounding the Tiris school and the surrounding area. It took four nights of investigation to successfully infiltrate the Tiris compound, and it took all his skill to avoid detection. The Anzati were naturally gifted with heightened senses, and those training to be assassins had honed those talents to super-human levels - but Ginh had no little practice in stealth and the Force is a powerful ally. While in the compound he managed to locate and access their accounting database, from which he discovered a massive influx of credits from a ‘Game Preserve’. A flash of clairvoyance served to confirm the ominous suspicion that had formed in his mind - these people who had been vanishing were not targets of revenge, or bounties, or even victims homicidal Anzati. They were captives, being hunted like animals for amusement of the depraved and the profit of the school. It had taken another three nights to locate the ‘hunting lodge’ in the mist filled valleys below the school, in which stayed several wealthy Anzati tourists and, to Ginh’s disgust, some twisted offworlders whose species did not… normally… consume sentient beings.
Ginh had dispatched a coded message to the Temple asking for assistance, but was loath to await their response. Every day wasted was another day in which sapient beings were slaughtered like beasts, and patience had always been a hard lesson for him. He knew that nearly thirty Anzati resided in the school, all trained or training in the infamous Anzati arts of assassination, and that was far more than he could confront. However, he felt a stirring in the Force that prompted him to venture forth again this night in the hopes that an opportunity might present itself.
He kept to the shadows as he slunk from one alley to another, carefully progressing towards the ancient compound of the Tiris Kyroushu-kuruu. As he approached, he noticed a figure crawl along a ledge of one of the school’s building and slide in through a window. As the figure went through the window, the glowing red-violet light of the aurora above glinted momentarily on what appeared to be a body coated in armor.
“That’s no Anzat…” Ginh thought to himself. Then his eyes snapped wide with realization. "What is that man doing?! If the Anzati discover him, this whole operation could disburse and go underground. It could be years before we find them again, thousands of lives lost before we pick up their trail!"
The Anzati of the Tiris school had gotten sloppy. The accounts showed this place had been operating for over two years, and Ginh had a strong suspicion that its success, and the greed that had bred, led to the upscaling of kidnapping operations that had allowed him to track them. If they were alerted that they had drawn outside attention, that was a mistake they would not make again.
A swift telekinetic burst caused the blood-red shoots of a nearby bamboo grove to rustle unnaturally, drawing the attention of the two Anzati standing guard over the gate. Ginh rushed towards the school, the Force accelerating his step and empowering his leap as he darted like a shadow over the compound’s wall and towards the building the armored humanoid had intruded. Another leap brought him to a balcony on the same level as the window that had given the armored man ingress, and Ginh paused at the edge of the open doorway of the balcony, pressing his back against the wall to keep within the shadows that obscured him from the school‘s sentries while preventing himself from being seen through the door.
Ginh heard the armored footfalls of the unknown other as he entered the room, and the muttered comment of “Let the games begin…” was enough, along with his sense of a presence in the Force, to let him gauge the position of the man.
”Games?” he thought irritably, as he withdrew his lightsaber from a pocket on the inside of his tunic where it was snugly hidden away. If he was going to prevent this man from interfering with what could be the one chance the Jedi would have to end this abhorrent business, he needed to act now. With a burst of speed he spun through the doorway and rushed towards the armored man.
“Not a word, nor a move, friend,“ Ginh said quietly but sharply, pointing his unlit lightsaber at the armored man in a pose clearly meant to intimate that he was in no position to argue.
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Sir Aaron
Ex-President of the Internet
163 posts
0 likes
Always looking for answers.
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last online Oct 17, 2010 21:06:50 GMT -5
Padawan
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Jul 3, 2010 10:36:09 GMT -5
Post by Sir Aaron on Jul 3, 2010 10:36:09 GMT -5
Johnis, feeling rather proud of himself, was about to withdraw one of his weapons, just in case things got nasty earlier than he intended for them to. But suddenly, a sense of dread filled him as the hilt of an unlit lightsaber was thrust in his direction. The other man ordered Johnis not to move, and he caught a glimpse to see this mysterious visitor was not an Anzat. Which was a great relief for Johnis, because had they known of his presence this early on he probably wouldn't have made it out alive. Johnis held up his hands in a gesture of peace as opposed to surrender.
"So" Johnis began to spin slowly keeping his hands visible to the other, and not lowering them slightly, "What have I done to deserve an honor of a visit from what I can only assume is a Jedi?" Johnis honestly asked, he now faced the Jedi. "I know this is going to be rude of me to skip formalities, proper introductions, and such but this is kind of important that we speed this up. I can tell you are not a hostile, you haven't alarmed the others yet and you haven't killed me. Plus, you wouldn't be whispering if you wanted to be found, so mind informing me of what is going on?" Johnis kept his voice at a reasonable level, it was just above a whisper but definitely a few steps below casual conversation with someone standing near him.
To say the least, Johnis was surprised by the rare treat of a Jedi showing up on the same bounty he was. He had no grudge against the Jedi nor this particular person, he just couldn't help but smile at the irony of a Jedi, of all people, to be on a bounty; and on top of that, the same bounty Johnis was.
Though any thought that brought the fondest of thoughts was instantly washed away by the realization the other was still holding his weapon out facing Johnis. He stood in a stance and held the weapon in such a fashion Johnis knew he meant business and would have no problem striking Johnis down if he so needed to. Which the realization of letting someone sneak up on him was highly embarrassing for the Mandalorian. He was a trained fighter, killer, and mercenary and yet he managed to let a Jedi drop in on him without realizing it before it was too late. He was on possibly one of the riskiest jobs he had ever taken up and if he had let his guard down so low, he needed to stricken up a bit.
"Okay, now, my friend, I am going to make you an offer. But first, I am going to kindly request you please lower your weapon" Johnis slightly lowered his arms until he had them crossed over his chest, "I don't know why you are here, but if it is for the bounty then I will be willing to split it with you half-way, assuming no more of the galaxy's scum shows up. And on top of that, I hold no quarrels with you."
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last online Aug 9, 2010 20:56:11 GMT -5
Youngling
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Jul 3, 2010 16:12:45 GMT -5
Post by KnightOfTheOrder on Jul 3, 2010 16:12:45 GMT -5
“So, what have I done to deserve an honor of a visit from what I can only assume is a Jedi?” the man said, his words coming in the carefully modulated murmur of a Mandalorian accent. The man turned and raised his arms, continuing on to say, "I know this is going to be rude of me to skip formalities, proper introductions, and such but this is kind of important that we speed this up. I can tell you are not a hostile, you haven't alarmed the others yet and you haven't killed me. Plus, you wouldn't be whispering if you wanted to be found, so mind informing me of what is going on?"
Ginh sighed inwardly. The man was staring down the barrel of a lightsaber and had been given two instructions: don’t speak and don’t move. Thus far he had done both, meaning either he lacked the remotest sense of discipline, or any sense of fear when facing a Jedi. Given the reputation of Mandalorians, Ginh was concerned it was the latter, which could complicate matters. Slowly the man started to lower his arms and cross them over his chest, which put Ginh further on guard as he had dealt with far too many mercenaries with shoulder holstered hold-out blasters and other nasty surprises wired into their armor. The man’s tone and posture gave no indication of attack, though, as he began to speak again.
"Okay, now, my friend, I am going to make you an offer. But first, I am going to kindly request you please lower your weapon. I don't know why you are here, but if it is for the bounty then I will be willing to split it with you half-way, assuming no more of the galaxy's scum shows up. And on top of that, I hold no quarrels with you.”
“A bounty?!” Ginh hissed incredulously, his dark eyes flashing in suprise. Who in their right mind would infiltrate an Anzati assassin school in pursuit of a few credits? He tamped down the frustration he felt welling up within him - he did not understand the draw credits had on other men, but he had seen it often enough to know that people would go to extraordinary lengths in the pursuit of wealth.
“You interfere in matters greater than your hunt for credits, Mandalorian,” he said, staring intently at what he hoped were the mans eyes, hidden as they were behind the opaque visor of his helmet. A creak on the wooden balcony from which he had entered the sparring chamber briefly called his attention, though his Force senses indicated there was no presence other than he and the bounty hunter for two dozen yards. “Your presence here jeopardizes my mission. You must leave now, before the Anzati discover you here.”
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Sir Aaron
Ex-President of the Internet
163 posts
0 likes
Always looking for answers.
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last online Oct 17, 2010 21:06:50 GMT -5
Padawan
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Jul 4, 2010 0:55:16 GMT -5
Post by Sir Aaron on Jul 4, 2010 0:55:16 GMT -5
His face, hidden by his helmet, remained completely emotionless. He was a bit agitated by the Jedi's actions though acting so repulsed at the mention of a bounty. But it was so much more than a bounty to Johnis. Sure, a few credits to keep himself fed and his ship filled up, maybe a few extra for a small luxury, but he didn't do his job for money, if he did he wouldn't have been so willing to part with half the bounty with ease. He did it for his love for the fight and this particular bounty because of what was happening. Innocent people being whisked from families, friends, and loved ones to be turned into prey for some sadistic game.
"Yes" Johnis spoke through gritted teeth, "I am not doing this for the money. While, yes, it will be a boost for my name because who hired me, I am also trying to help deter the kidnappings. I think one being can waste and use an innocent life for mere amusement and training is downright disgusting. So they call people like me in-" Johnis stopped immediately in his speech.
Immediately Johnis withdrew his two beskads, his arm felt complete again, the twin swords were like extensions off of his body. He moved with the fluidity and grace of a skilled Jedi some say. Though he knew it was over-exaggerated he had mimicked their fighting style slightly. He may have come from a war-mongering people, yet he still showed interest in the style, grace, and finesse of their movements and postures. Johnis looked from the balcony over to the Jedi, his breathing near stilled and silent.
But when the Jedi began to talk, Johnis lowered his weapons slightly, ready to attack at any moment. He was warned that his presence was endangering a mission and that it was imperative that he left. That was a joke! Right? Johnis held back the urge to chuckle, the Jedi was being serious; which made it slightly more am using for him.
"Okay, look, I am here to put this place out of business, and make an example to those who wish to do the same in their footsteps, I've made it this far anyway! And not a soul has noticed at al-" Johnis' words were cut short as two figures dove from the balcony.
One seemed to all most glide down on the other side of the fighting pit while the other fell into the pit. Johnis lifted his blades in the blink of an eye and held them ready to to attack. But a moment later, the shadow of the being that had come down stepped into the light and there stood the form of Vrune, Johnis' pet Strill. Johnis side, at least it wasn't what they thought initially.
"Vrune, I told you to stay at the ship and guard it, you won't be able to help much this mission! I don't have the scent of our target and you can't let me know when enemies are near- Vrune? Are you okay?" as he knelt down next to the Strill, he noticed its eyes were focused in the pit and a quite, guttural growl escaped his throat.
As Johnis glanced down, he realized what had happened. Vrune had left the ship and followed Johnis' trail. And when he had reached the balcony, one of the Anzat were up there and so Vrune attacked the creature, and being caught off, the Anzat fell into the pit while Vrune just glided down using his wing-like foreskin. But before Johnis could do or say anything else, three figures shuffled into the doorway on the other side of the room. They were Anzat's, and they looked mad.
No...
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last online Aug 9, 2010 20:56:11 GMT -5
Youngling
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Jul 5, 2010 2:27:35 GMT -5
Post by KnightOfTheOrder on Jul 5, 2010 2:27:35 GMT -5
A flicker of Ginh’s attention was all it had taken to allow the Mandalorian to unsheathe his blades - the man was skilled, there was no denying that. Inwardly Ginh sighed. This bounty hunter not only persisted in arguing with him in the middle of an Anzati assassin training complex - a place where a master assassin, who had spent centuries killing people, was teaching a group of other assassins, whose very biological nature was to kill and feed off other people, how to more efficiently kill people. While anywhere on the surface of Anzat was dangerous, the inside of an assassin school seemed more so and was hardly the setting for a debate. Ginh had no idea how this man got here, how he knew about the kidnappings that had taken Ginh a month of tracking and an anonymous tip to find, or why he thought that arguing with a Jedi was a good plan, but he had to go before he was found - willing or not.
Letting go of his frustration, Ginh found peace in the Force as he allowed it to fill him and guide his actions. His mind focused on how to swiftly and silently disable the bounty hunter. The full body suit of armor meant that disabling him would require more than the usual knock on the head, and from what he had read of the Mandalorians, their armor was typically able to resist lightsabers unless the same place was struck repeatedly. Gauging from the man’s stance and seeming familiarity with his weapons, it was unlikely that he would be obliging enough to stand still and be struck in the same place repeatedly. This meant that the assault most likely to quickly disable the man would be an assault on his mind, a technique at which Ginh fortunately excelled.
As he began to focus on the Mandalorian’s thoughts, though, he was abruptly distracted by a body plummeting through the air merely a yard from where he stood and careening past him to fall on the floor of the sparring pit with a loud thud. This was followed by a gliding beast that the bounty hunter referred to as “Vrune.” Ginh winced as he realized that any hopes of getting out of the school unnoticed had been dashed by this man and his pet.
Ginh cast his perception of the Force wide, anticipating sensations of alert, surprise, fear or any of the normal emotions that people exhibit when a loud crash sounds in the dead of night and found… nothing. Whereas earlier he had been able to detect the presence several Anzati sentries within the vicinity, now they seemed to have gone. Ginh’s thoughts raced as he tried to grasp the situation, wondering what could have caused the Anzati assassins to have left their posts at the school en masse. Briefly he wondered if this bounty hunter was just one of many pursuing whatever bounty had been offered, just the vanguard of a veritable host intent on announcing to the entire Tiris Kyroushu-kuruu that their activities had come under scrutiny. He did not have long to contemplate this, though, as his musings were interrupted by the last thing he would have expected. At that moment, three Anzati entered the room, clearly prepared for combat and he could not feel them in the Force.
A wave of curiosity welled up within him, almost sufficient to cause him to set aside the immediacy of his situation and begin trying to ascertain how they could be hiding their presences. As the Anzati assassins rushed towards the bounty hunter and himself, though, the instincts he honed over decades of training as a Jedi kicked in. An Anzat weilding a pair of crescent-shaped fist-axes leapt at him, his arms slicing through the air in a sweeping motion where Ginh’s neck had been moments before. Ginh, danger sense flaring, had dropped to the group to avoid the attack and then lunged vertically with an outstretched elbow aimed to strike the assassin’s solar plexus and induce dyspnea. Finding his mark and recovering his feet, he was prevented from following up on his temporarily disabled assailant as an incoming sword blade forced him to jump, tucking his knees tightly to avoid losing his legs.
Utilizing a slight touch of the Force to direct his leap backwards, he regained his feet and prepared for the next attack - yet even in the heat of combat, one thought dominated his mind. “How can I not sense their presence?!”
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Sir Aaron
Ex-President of the Internet
163 posts
0 likes
Always looking for answers.
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last online Oct 17, 2010 21:06:50 GMT -5
Padawan
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Jul 5, 2010 22:28:19 GMT -5
Post by Sir Aaron on Jul 5, 2010 22:28:19 GMT -5
Johnis’ attention turned to the Anzats at they entered into the room. Johnis watched as the Jedi managed to fight off one of the assassins. Johnis’ attention immediately snapped to the one charging him. Within an instant he snapped from the relaxed cool guy to a near separate entity. His facial expression, though hidden, snapped to emotionless and his mind into a warlike state. He wasn’t blood thirsty, he just focused on one thing, his goal, and that was not dying. As the Anzat charged him with his blades, Johnis dropped to the ground and brought up an armor-clad boot to the chin of the assassin.
Much to Johnis’ dismay, the assassin had caught on quickly to Johnis’ intentions and backstabbed so Johnis’ maneuver barely caught the tip of his chin. But it was enough to produce an audible crack and draw blood. Johnis rolled as the assassin brought down his blade; it sparked as it hit the ground where Johnis lay just moments ago. Johnis stumbled to his feet and began parrying the blows thrown at him by his foe. With his other blade Johnis would strike at his foe, but the Anzat managed to block his attacks. Working out a strategy in his mind, he began to see a flaw in the Anzat’s fighting style.
Quickly sheathing one of his blades, Johnis withdrew a blaster and aimed it at the Anzat’s chest and fired, but once again the Anzat managed to dive to the left and the shot hit the wall, leaving a black, smoldering mark. Johnis lowered himself into the fighting pit where the assassin he fought went; the assassin that fell from the balcony still lay there, motionless. Johnis charged forward at his foe, and their blades met, the assassin brought the kind of fight Johnis enjoyed, it was actually challenging, better than two-bit gamblers who accumulated large debts or had traded in some fellow criminals to get a shortened sentence.
“Hey , Jedi, how are you holding out?” Johnis’ voice echoed from the pit out into the room.
Catching a glimpse of Vrune peering over the edge, Johnis couldn’t help but smile. It was the small things in life like his relationship with Vrune and his wish to rid the galaxy of people like this that kept him going on. A slight smirk etched onto his face as the battle waged on, parrying blow after blow. Johnis still held his blaster in one hand, his beskad in the other. Johnis attacked with a long chain of blows, one after another. The assassin backed away and finally Johnis had him where he wanted him.
The assassin was now cornered in the pit, and Johnis struck again with his blade, managed to pin the man’s arm and blade above his head. Johnis lifted his blaster, which was set to stun, and fired a shot at the man’s chest. The body went lip and Johnis withdrew a pair of Mandalorian mantacles. He had better forms of binding a foe but he saved these for weaker foes and those that didn’t seem to pose as much of a threat. Johns pulled himself up from the pit, his blaster was now back in its holster and he made his way towards the still fighting Jedi, blade at the ready.
“Shall I hold your hand and assist you?” Johnis inquired, he hoped the Jedi took the joke as simply that, he normally wasn’t this calm around foes.
After sizing up the enemy these must have been students, they put up a decent fight but they still weren’t ready for the big leagues. As he assumed his stance again as he did before, he was prepared to help the Jedi at any moment. That is, until the shot from a blaster zoomed in front of Johnis’ helmet; instantly a dozen curses filled his mind as well as a few other things. Kriffing fool, does he know he’ll hurt someone? Johnis jested mentally, charging his foe.
Perhaps he had truly under estimated his rivals after all…
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last online Aug 9, 2010 20:56:11 GMT -5
Youngling
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Jul 6, 2010 23:03:53 GMT -5
Post by KnightOfTheOrder on Jul 6, 2010 23:03:53 GMT -5
Ginh was dimly aware of the bounty hunter careening into the third Anzat that had entered the room, pursuing him into the room’s little arena and out of sight. His focus was not on the perceptions of his eyes, but instead rested inward on his perceptions of the Force. Its whispers warned him when to slide right to avoid the envenomed blade of the Anzati assassin, when to strike out with fist or foot or the heavy hilt of his lightsaber. He couldn’t perceive the intents his assailant as the Anzat appeared to be dead to the Force, but the murmur of his danger-sense and decades of training allowed him to remain a step ahead of the vampiric alien.
A part of his mind still was trying to come to grips with the fact that he couldn’t read the assassin’s intentions. He had run into a few races or a few individuals whose minds were difficult to read or presences were slippery to detect, but never one who simply did not seem to be present in the Force at all. The assassin was alive though, and so clearly was in the Force - and while he might not be able to perceive it, it surely could still perceive him. As he continued dodging the attacks of the Anzat, he began projecting feelings of urgency and haste, a need for swift aggression. He may not have been able to read when exactly his opponent wanted to attack, but if he heighted the urgency to do so and paid attention to the assassin's positioning…
A thrust of his foe’s blade was avoided by a deft sidestep. A savagely wide arcing slice was ducked with a roll that placed him beside the assassin‘s left side. ”Your footing is everything in a duel,” he could remember his Master saying during his early days of lightsaber training, “One wrong step, and you are out of position. Once out of position, the control of the duel is your opponent's. Lose control, and lose the duel.”
A viciously thrown elbow lashed out at his ribs as the assassin reacted to his new position, but Ginh reacted with speed exceeding that of a normal man - as if he had anticipated the attack. Striking the triceps of the incoming arm with his right fist, he shoved it forward just enough to prevent it from making contact with his ribs or abdomen and, with the precision of a man following a coordinated routine, his left hand chopped inward like a blade to strike the Anzat in the throat. Whirling, Ginh slid around around the temporarily stunned Anzat in a fluid motion to position himself facing the right side of the staggered assassin and struck at the back of his head, hard, with the hilt of the lightsaber clenched in his right fist. The Anzat went down like a marionette with its strings cut.
As his focus widened from the tight zoom on his fight, he heard the Mandalorian’s helmet-filtered voice echoing through the room, asking how he was holding up. Does this sith-cursed bounty hunter ever be silent? Ginh found himself wondering irritably, Or does he intend the alert the entire school to our presence?
He had barely finished the thought and started looking around for the Anzati that had first attacked him before a blue flash of light radiated from the pit, accompanied by the sound of a blaster discharging a stun bolt.
Ginh stared at the training pit in utter shock. Did the bounty hunter really just fire a blaster in a school full of assassins, after going to the trouble of sneaking into the compound without alerting anyone in the first place? Either the man was suicidal or had never seen combat outside a bar fight, and Ginh wasn‘t entirely sure which would be worse given the situation. As his mind raced to determine what to do, he nearly missed the sensation of the Force urgently warning of danger.
Throwing himself to the left as he suddenly recognized the nagging sensation, Ginh grimaced in pain as a whirling crescent blade sliced along the edge of his right shoulder. His robes flared with his motion, obscuring the exact positioning of his body, and the next whirling blade cut through his cloak but did no harm. As he regained his feet, the third Anzati assassin came hurdling down upon him, striking like a pouncing cat upon it’s prey. He grappled with the creature for a moment, it’s shaggy black hair, long thin mustache and bulbous nose inches from his own well trimmed face. Suddenly the dark eyes of the knight met with the pale eyes of the assassin, and a strange sensation began to creep over his senses. The sparse light in the room, provided by the luminescent aurorae that lit the night sky, seemed dimmer. His senses seemed less keen. His struggle, less urgent…
Slowly, it seemed, his mind recognized what was occurring. He had heard of Anzati utilizing a type of hypnosis to subdue their sentient prey before they struck, and this must be an attempt to apply the skill to combat. With realization came resistance, and the world seemed to snap back into normal speed while Ginh’s knee snapped into his assailant’s groin.
The Anzati staggered back, as did Ginh, just as the armored bounty hunter emerged from the sparring pit. With a sudden shock Ginh realized he could feel the Anzat again. He wasn’t sure if the assassin had let go of whatever cloaking he had been using when he reached out to try to hypnotize Ginh, or if the abrupt pain that he received had caused him to loose focus, but the Anzat was present in the Force again like all other living beings. Shock and… disappointment… seemed to radiate from him, combined with a little fear, though the fear seemed directed at something distant (Perhaps his master, Ginh thought) rather than the intruding Jedi and bounty hunter.
However, when the bounty hunter spoke, a flash of hot anger flared up in the assassin. In a single movement the Anzati assassin went from standing hunched over in pain to flowing into an aiming pose with a blasted that seemed to have materialized from nowhere. Ginh could feel the assassin’s energy as he triggered new reserves and allowed his training to take over. As the assassin aimed at the Mandalorian, Ginh reached out with a light touch on the assassin’s energy and disrupted it, just enough to disrupt the Anzat’s equilibrium, interfering with his balance as he changed position and throwing off his aim just a hair. A thin bolt of green energy lanced through the air inches from the bounty hunter’s helmet, though the assassin’s blaster seemed mercifully quiet in the suddenly still night.
The bounty hunter charged the assassin, much to the assassin’s regret.
When the three assassin students were all rendered harmless, Ginh turned to the bounty hunter - his face as unreadable as the Mandalorian’s mask. “It would have been better had you not come here,” he said, pulling up the hood of his dark robes to hide his face in shadow. “The school’s master will know of these three missing soon enough, and be alerted that contrary forces have taken an interest in his operation. It is likely that he will be gone within the day. May the Force guide your hunt, though I recommend you end it, as even the Force would be hard pressed to protect you from a cadre such as these.”
With that he began moving out into the cold night, intent on finding a way to free the kidnapped sentients of the valley’s ‘game preserve’ before the Anzati assassins were able to spirit them away, or decided to kill them so as to leave no witnesses.
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Sir Aaron
Ex-President of the Internet
163 posts
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Always looking for answers.
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last online Oct 17, 2010 21:06:50 GMT -5
Padawan
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Jul 8, 2010 1:43:38 GMT -5
Post by Sir Aaron on Jul 8, 2010 1:43:38 GMT -5
Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. Johnis was pressed with a decision. He watched the Jedi as he skillfully finished off the last assassin and reprimanded Johnis for his actions, like he was some kind of child. While yes, he did discharge his blaster, but so did the assassin student, Johnis just wanted to take a little bit of initiative; he smiled at the thought.
But the Jedi was heading for the exit of the place, and Johnis stood there. What was he going to do? He knew the Jedi wouldn't be able to go down there and face all of the Anzat alone. The ones up here alone put up a hell of a fight, and these were only students, trainees, he was afraid to see what a full squad of professional assassins would be like. But going with the Jedi meant forfeiting his bounty, chances were. Because if the bodies were found within a reasonable amount of time, the time it would take to head down there and free all the others, the leader would have more than enough time to be on an entirely different planet.
He was truly posed with a conundrum as what to do... He could take the high road and go save several lives and be out a lot of money he needs as well as have a pretty angry higher crime lord on his tail. Or he could go, leave the Jedi to possibly die as well as thousands of others. Johnis clenched his fists tightly around the beskad before finally putting it back where it belonged in its sheathe. Times ticking, lives wasting, hurry Johnis! Finally Johnis came to his decision.
He turned and began to head the opposite direction of the Jedi, he figured if the Jedi had enough gall to try it on his own, he would clearly be fine. Johnis came to the bottom of a stairwell and placed his foot on the first step and froze. Grief and regret washed over him like a dive into the vast oceans of Manaan. Kriff it all! Why do things have to be difficult? Johnis spun around and moved at a fairly quick pace through the silent school. Finally, the Jedi came into his vision.
He silently followed behind, not saying a word, as not to upset the Jedi. He knew if he spoke he would be reprimanded again for speaking again and giving away their presence and location to the enemy. Vrune, sensing his master's feelings, remain relatively quiet, short of the clicking of his nails on the wooden floor. Johnis let out a silent sigh of relief. How do I manage to get myself into this all the time? he asked himself mentally before shrugging the question off.
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last online Aug 9, 2010 20:56:11 GMT -5
Youngling
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Jul 9, 2010 0:45:59 GMT -5
Post by KnightOfTheOrder on Jul 9, 2010 0:45:59 GMT -5
Ginh blended into the shadows as he stalked off into the night. He scaled the perimeter of the compound - an admittedly easier task now that the sentries that had been stationed nearby were all laying unconscious on the floor in their sparring room - and moved silently through the Anzati town of Tirisanto. The dark lacquered red-bamboo walls of the long, low houses held little signs of life - which was unsurprising, as most Anzati spent the majority of their lives hunting off world, and only returned for purposes of training, breeding, and familial/political events. Their dark windows seemed to gaze out at him and follow his progress, as if bearing silent witness to his passage.
The slope of the snow-crusted road began to tilt downwards as he moved through the town and away from the mountain peak on which was perched the Tiris Kyroushu-kuruu. Despite the apparent emptiness of the town, Ginh moved cautiously, darting from shadow to shadow and traveling through alleys or down side-roads when he could. He felt no Anzati presences pursuing him… but then, that was just what had him so rattled from the incident at the asssassin’s school. He hadn’t felt the Anzati assassins, even when he could see them there before him. His senses were keen and he had received extensive training from his master to break him of relying solely on his perceptions in the Force, but it was still unnerving to find that one’s greatest strength and most reliable ally had a blind spot. As he passed through the outskirts of the town and began treading the rough paths leading down the side of the mountain peak and into the mist-veiled valleys below, he was distracted with these thoughts. The green illumination of the aurora above cast an eerie green tincture upon the fringes of the mist, and Ginh plunged forward into that swirling gloom.
Visibility was severely reduced once in the thick mists that blanketed the valleys, but Ginh had walked this path before when he had first been searching for the facilities from which the Anzati ‘game preserve’ was run. They were not dangerous paths - the mountain had a gentle slope on this side and the rocky tracks were well worn - but the obscuration of the mists and the near impenetrable walls of blood-red Anzati bamboo that seemed to randomly appear when one deviated from the course meant that close attention was required to avoid finding oneself in a dead end surrounded by bamboo.
As he walked, his mind raced. He had to devise a means to get in to the facility in which the kidnapped beings were kept, find a way to help them escape, and acquire a means of getting them off-world. When he had first scouted the location he had detected at least a half dozen or so Anzati guards, all students of the Tiris Kyroushu-kuruu, and knowing now that the school had a technique that rendered their presences undetectable in the Force, he could not safely assume that there would not be more. His senses stretched out as he moved through the Anzat wilderness, almost instinctually trying to detect the presence of foes as his mind dwelt on impending challenges, and in doing so his attention was called to a presence was shadowing him closely.
His first reaction was one of surprise, assuming an assassin from the school had followed him. Even as he turned, though, he could sense this was no Anzat that stalked him; it was the bounty hunter. A brief suspicion passed his mind that the Mandalorian was pursing a bounty on him, but the man’s presence in the Force did not seem to betray such an intent. Nonetheless, Ginh had not survived as many years as he had, infiltrating various criminal organizations and dismantling them, by letting go of suspicions. Slowly he half turned towards the bounty hunter, his hooded face looking back over his left shoulder so that he could just make out the positioning of the bounty hunter behind him in his peripheral vision. Simultaneously he cautiously positioned his right hand above his lightsaber, obscured by the folds of his robe, but did not draw it.
“You follow me, bounty hunter,” he said, his hushed words hanging on the silent, thick air as his breath formed a mist that blended with the natural fog. “Do you not have quarry to pursue?”
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Sir Aaron
Ex-President of the Internet
163 posts
0 likes
Always looking for answers.
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last online Oct 17, 2010 21:06:50 GMT -5
Padawan
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Jul 10, 2010 0:50:56 GMT -5
Post by Sir Aaron on Jul 10, 2010 0:50:56 GMT -5
(Sorry my post was short. -_-)
Johnis kept a pretty good distance between him and the Jedi for sometime, before the Jedi's hook slowly moved, Johnis could only assume the Jedi was turning his head to face him, he must have sensed his presence. Then, breaking the silence of the night, he was inquired of why he was following the Jedi when he himself had an Anzat assassin master he was supposed to be after. Johnis half-considered taking off his helm to taking off his helmet to talk, it would make things easier. No, he couldn't do that... So, he strolled up behind the Jedi until he was practically stepping on his heels.
"Look, I may be a bounty hunter, but that doesn't mean I rid myself of my conscience or emotion. If I let you go down there alone, you risk dying taking on all those assassins all alone. I know that you Jedi are powerful and all, but still, even this is a challenge for my own kind. Plus, thousands of lives that have been wasted for game and millions to come, it's too harsh of a reality. What's a few credits and a high crime lord with his coals stoked when it comes to innocents?" Johnis spoke quietly, to a point to where the Jedi would have to strain to hear his words and anyone around would be oblivious to their presence.
As they walked down, the frigid weather of the planet was beginning to get to him. He had worked in some radical temperatures before, but at such an altitude, it was getting rough. His clothing under his armor offered some protection from the harsh weather, but as the metal plates of his armor tightly held to his body grew cold, his clothing offered no protection. Though, despite the weather, he kept his eyes peeled, scanning the area. Though, it was beginning to grow dark.
"So, you know where they are holding them I assume?" Johnis asked in a hushed voice.
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last online Aug 9, 2010 20:56:11 GMT -5
Youngling
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Jul 12, 2010 1:00:15 GMT -5
Post by KnightOfTheOrder on Jul 12, 2010 1:00:15 GMT -5
”Look, I may be a bounty hunter, but that doesn't mean I rid myself of my conscience or emotion,” the bounty hunter offered in response to Ginh’s inquiry. “If I let you go down there alone, you risk dying taking on all those assassins all alone. I know that you Jedi are powerful and all, but still, even this is a challenge for my own kind. Plus, thousands of lives that have been wasted for game and millions to come, it's too harsh of a reality. What's a few credits and a high crime lord with his coals stoked when it comes to innocents?”
Prior to this, the man had revealed that he was on a bounty and willing to split it. With this ‘high crime lord and the Mandalorian’s surprisingly thorough knowledge of what was going on here, the man’s presence here was becoming increasingly interesting. Ginh wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. Questions raced through his mind at lightning speed. Why was a crime lord getting involved? How had the crime lord come to find out about this? On which being had the crime lord placed his bounty - one of the Anzati? One of the wealthy individuals that came to the ‘game preserve’ for twisted sport? And for all the Mandalorian’s protestations of having a conscience, his studies of the Mandalorians in history and his own experiences with bounty hunters left him somewhat unwilling to accept that altruism could come packaged in beskar’gam.
He did not detect deception in the Mandalorian, though. He calmed the turmoil of his thoughts and focused inward, looking to the Force for insight. Rising through the stillness he had enforced upon his mind, the Force answered. A clear sensation of correctness surfaced from the depths of his peace, the insight from the Force he had sought. While he did not know exactly what was going on with this Mandalorian, he was confident in the guidance of the Force and so accepted that somehow this bounty hunter was supposed to come with him. He nodded acceptance to the bounty hunter, lifting his hand away - but not too far away - from the hilt of his lightsaber, and he motioned for the man to follow him as he continued down the path.
He strode uneasily through the thickening murk of the valley's mists, the distant light from above seeming to fade as they went further down into the valley. While he trusted that his new ally was supposed to be with him, he did not fully understand why. He looked inward again to see if he could intuit what part this man was to play - if the Mandalorian would end up hindering the mission or help being about its success. No answered appeared this time, though, and his attention was soon taken by a question the bounty hunter asked.
”So, you know where they are holding them I assume?” he inquired, his voice filtered though his T-visored helm. Ginh nodded, his hooded head swirling the mists about it as it moved.
“I do,” he replied, “It is further down this valley. A facility that serves as both prison for the captured sentients and resort for the… hunters.” The emphasis on that last word made clear his distaste for the beings that participated in this murder game. He would have to be careful, when they reached the facility, that he was not too hasty to resort to violence with them. Silently he reminded himself of the various mantras that had been drilled into him by his master so many years ago, and with them the memories of lessons teaching that to use violence, even if deserved, before one must resort to violence is the first step on a dark path.
“Before we reach it, bounty hunter” he said to the Mandalorian, “perhaps you should explain your presence on Anzat. You mentioned a bounty, that you are now willing to forego. And you have a surprising knowledge of the Tiris school‘s operation here. How is it that you came here?”
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