Maurader Corvette Dragonsnake Hyperspace
The captured members of the Brotherhood come to in separate dimly lit rooms. How they got there remains a mystery. The memory loss a side effect of whatever had been used to sedate them. The rooms themselves are small crew cabins that had been retrofit to serve as makeshift holding cells. Each member floats in a containment field in the center of their respective rooms. Some time passes before the soft hum of hyperspace is interrupted by footsteps and a pair of anxious voices.
“Get the doc; I think the prisoners are waking up!” A jittery, high-pitched male voice exclaimed.
A gruff female voice responded, “So what? They’re all in containment fields. They ain’t goin’ anywhere.” The second voice sounded like it was coming from within a helmet.
“I don’t know, I heard these Brotherhood types can be dangerous. Like Jedi or something.”
“Whateva, I almost wish they were able to start something. I haven’t had a decent fight in months. Quit ya yappin’ and finish your watch.”
“I hate guard duty.” the male voice muttered.
Heavy metal footsteps stomped off, leaving a single set of softer footsteps moving up and down the hallway in a regular pattern.
Thane remained impassive, enjoying the weightlessness around him. The Deputy Grand Master let his thoughts wander.
He didn’t get breaks. At least, not often. There wasn’t any harm in napping.
Especially when he wasn’t exactly feeling threatened.
Kamjin heard the distant voices through shut eyes. It was so seldom these days that he got to awaken of his own volition that he was loath to believe the voices weren’t part of a dream.
He felt weightless. The sleep must have been restful. A casual yawn escaped his lips as his sense of obligation forced him to awaken to the…
Kamjin did not know this place yet he recognized it immediately. He had similar cells for restraining Force users. What he had originally though was the tingle of nerves from sleeping in one position for to long he now recognized as the electric restraints that left him suspended in air.
His senses were dulled by the Force restraints but it suddenly become obvious that he was naked. Someone wasn’t gonna take any chances that he had someone concealed that would have allowed him to escape.
“Whomever you are,” Kamjin said calmly to whomever was observing them. “I’m sure you know now why they call me a Hutt.” He smirked at his own joke as he let himself relax. Whatever was gonna happen was gonna happen fast.
While he waited, Zxyl floated with arms crossed and legs straight in petty annoyance. His armor - sans helmet - had been taken from him, leaving him in nothing but his bodyglove. He was very unamused by the whole affair. His other equipment was also gone, something that would truly only offend a Mandalorian.
Thankfully they hadn’t figured out the auto-release mechanism on his helmet, and while the atmospheric tubing was gone with the remainder of the custom beskar skin, at least his face remained covered.
Once he overheard voices, the Mandalorian shifted from a horizontal floating position to vertical, and began watching the door to his cell with a little added distance between them. His head tilted up slightly as he overheard the newly minted Justicar’s voice, though it was quiet. He chose not to reveal himself to the Sith lest for some crazy reason their captors were unaware they were both Brotherhood Councilors. It did make the Mandalorian General wonder however just how many of them were here. Was there some other higher positioned Councilor here, or was this some sort of power grab by Victae to assert dominance?
Rajhin awoke and immediately began to struggle against the containment field despite the fact that no amount of physical strength he could muster would break the field. The Togorian let out a low frustrated growl, resigned to his current situation. He spent a few moments floating and trying to formulate a plan. Where the Fist was and who had taken him remained a mystery. His memory was still foggy from the sedation.
Remain calm, interrogation will be the best opportunity to escape. Rajhin thought.
An air vent over the door of Kamjin’s cell slid open and an ID-10 droid floated down to the floor. Before the indisposed Justicar could say anything the droid seemed to shock the control panel of the containment field with its jet-black pincer. The field deactivated dumping the nude human onto the cold durasteel deck.
A female voice emanated from the droid at a low volume, just above a whisper, “we don’t have much time before they come back to check on you. You’ll have to leave your servants behind.” <@679032520699805708>
Kamjin made a perfect three-point landing, raising his head to look at the droid. “There are others here with me?” Kamjin asked. Not waiting for a response he stretched out as the Force returned to him. Nearby he felt the presence of three fellow Councilors.
“I’m not going to leave them. Can you get the door open?”
The droid gave a soft beep in the affirmative and touched the keypad with its pincer which sparked with electricity for a moment. The door opened with a whoosh and light flooded into the room from the hallway.
“What was that?” A Devoronian guard inquired as he turned from his patrol route toward the now open room.
Kamjin, with a gesture of his fingers, put the man under his control. It was one of Kamjin’s favorite exploits of the gifts he had honed all these decades. “It was nothing,” Kamjin lied, as he grin grew. “There’s an emergency and you need to release the prisoners immediately. Open these doors and deactivate their restraints.”
The Devoronian guard did as instructed and entered the rooms of the three other councilors, one by one, and deactivated their containment fields before returning to Kamjin in a daze.
“What is the meaning of this? How did we get here?” Rajhin inquired in an uncharacteristically soft tone as he entered the hallway, pausing for a moment at the Justicar’s nakedness. The Fist was thankful he had only been stripped down to the bodyglove under his armor.
From his suspension, Thane was unfortunately aware of what was going on. He felt like…idiocy was about to interrupt his nap.
Then it happened.
With a whine, his field deactivated and the Firrerreo extended his legs to break the fall.
The Deputy Grand Master took a quick inventory, noting he had at least been left with pants. His pale torso was exposed, a vicious tapestry of scars and burnt flesh pulling tightly as his skin moved over his toned muscles. He remained remarkably straight and still as he walked with a predator’s grace out of his cell.
He turned just his head slowly towards the others, eyeing them with his black-gold gaze and a raised eyebrow.
Kamjin stood at ease or, at least, as much as one could given the circumstances. “I do not know why we are here,” he said, turning to face the Devoronian. “Perhaps you’d like to enlighten us as to how we got here and where he is,” Kamjin asked.
“I don’t know how you got here,” the Devaronian stammered. “Something about an insider sabotaging a shuttle and us gassing it to pick you up. Going to Nal Hutta to sell ya.”
With that the crewman blinked and shook his head as if waking from a dream. The Justicar’s influence on his mind waning.
“Where is our equipment?” Kamjin asked
Thane appraised his successor as Justicar with an icy stare.
“Feeling naked without your toys?” he asked. A smirk threatened to show itself as the edge of his lips twitched. It was also a multi-level jab. Thane, personally, didn’t need his gear to be effective. Any of it could be replaced later.
Assuming Morgan still had the same tailor.
Kamjin smirked at Thane. “I didn’t want you to get cold,” kamjin said, ignoring his own state.
Already bored of the man’s antics, Thane turned his attention away. A quick scan told him that there was a clear separation between the retrofitted cabins they were in and the untouched cabins further down the hall.
He gave a quick nod in that direction to indicate for the others. “What is behind door number 1?”
“You have some valuable booty, I think they took it to the Captain’s quarters” The guard replied.
“Why is it only Kamjin and I who are naked?” Idris questioned leaving his cell space. The Mandalorian had an air of disappointment in his voice. “You are quite right about the booty,” he continued while slapping the new Justicar on the ass and winking at the guard. “Someone is about to have a very very bad day.”
Kamjin smirked and, with a twist of his hand, snapped the guards neck. With his head swinging loose he crumpled to the ground.
“I didn’t know they got you too,” Kamjin said, as he slid the guards body into one of the vacant cells.
The ID-10 droid floated up to Kamjin, “We don’t have time for this, the whole ship will be on alert before you’ve collected all your servants.”
“Servants?” Rajhin inquired in an incredulous tone as he moved toward the door Renatus had indicated, stacking beside it as if to breach.
“Okay, Droid,” Kamjin said, closing the door on the dead guard. “What’s the situation we are in?”
“Your situation ‘Emperor’ is that you need to disable the tractor beam and then get to the hanger bay before this vessel reaches its destination.” Whomever was controlling the droid spun it around for emphasis.
If that thing calls me ‘servant’ one more time, Thane thought to himself. Then he openly shrugged, as if he wasn’t conversing with himself. Well, I never really cared for droids anyhow.
A happy memory came to mind at that. Sparks and pieces of C-D4WG in the corner. It had become so quiet after that.
“I think the proper order is either pants for us, or no pants for anyone, then tractor beam, then mass death to everyone else on this ship, then hangar bay,” Idris suggested.
Kamjin, ignoring Idris’s words of wisdom, had already moved towards the hatch at the end of the corridor. “Droid, can you get this door open without alerting anyone to our presence?”
The droid complied with the request and touched the door panel with its pincer. The panel switched from red to green then began flashing red. The ID-10 was suddenly thrown to the other side of the hallway with a loud CLANG and sparks flying. The red eyes of the machine went dim.
Before any of the group of councilors could react the cabin door flew open with a whoosh and a Weequay stepped out into the hall, blaster in hand. “OY! WHO’S TRYING TO STEAL MY STU—-WHAT THE FRACK? YOU TRYING TO BUGGER ME?!?!”
“DANK FARRIK,” Kamjin screeched. He threw his hands up and unleashed a torrent of Force Lightning from his body. The Weequay was thrown to the floor. Arcs of electricity danced over his body as Kamjin kicked the blaster back to his fellow Councilors; stubbing his toe in the process.
“GAH! Damnit!,” Kamjin said, hopping on one foot as he grabbed at his injured toe. “Don’t scare me that that!”
“You…” Thane began. Have problems.
“What?” Kamjin snapped back as he gingerly tried out his injured toe. “Pick up the blaster and come help me search this guy.”
Once the field had dropped and his feet planted firmly back on the floor, Bes'uliik did not immediately make for the exit - opting to wait it out a bit. Eventually the Justicar’s voice was joined by several others, all familiar to him. As Kamjin just up and electrocuted a dude the Mandalorian exited his own cell into the hallway to see the others, and catch the Deputy Grand Master’s apparent statement of disbelief. The naked Justicar seemed a little frustrated.
Wait, am I naked?
He hadn’t bothered to check. He was so preoccupied with his helmet. The Regent’s hands immediately reached for his body, confirming that it was indeed covered. The Dathomirian-Mandalorian breathed a sigh of relief. He was not part of the naked committee.
The Regent understood their frustration however, and he did want to retrieve his handmade gear.
“Find anything?”
“Nope.”
Idris sighed as he attempted to pull the guards pants off. “I just don’t think a Hutt can fit in these,” he muttered to himself before standing up. He had left the pants only half removed from the guard. “Sorry master I have failed you as a servant,” he said to Kamjin.
Zxyl grimaced at the talk of master and servant. He was nobody’s servant. It was unfortunate Kamjin hadn’t found anything of use, but it was what it was. He scooped up the guard’s weapon, intent on using it to beat the hell out of some people.
“Let’s just get a move on.”
“In a moment,” Kamjin said as he walked back to pick up the shorted out droid. While he didn’t consider himself a mechanic he had enough field experience to try the power reset button on the back of this particular model.
With a series of blinking tones the droid came back to life. “Okay, which way do we go to take out the tractor beam?”
The droid shakes itself and began projecting a map of the middle deck of the ship. “You’ll have to make your way to here. I suggest getting your equipment back first.”
“Where is our equipment?”
The droid highlighted the locations on the map.
“What’s the crew compliment and their disposition?”
“I don’t have the data and if you don’t stop asking questions and get moving you’ll find out first hand!” The exasperated voice of the person remote controlling the droid added.
Kamjin fought this Intelligence training to obtain as much information as possible before acting and made a mental decision that he’d just have to wing it.
“Fine. We’re going,” Kamjin said as he started on the path towards the Tractor Beam controls. He was more than his equipment and a part of his ego wanted to punish these people for thinking that they could hamper him by stripping him of them.
Rajhin moved swiftly toward the front of the group and posted up at the archway connecting the crew cabin hallway. He peeked around the corner just in time to see another Devoronian crewman heading toward the cabin area.
“Hey! What are yo–” The crewman’s exclamation was cut short by Rajhin rushing at him with near supernatural speed. The hefty Togorian had to hunch a little inside the cramped hallways of the ship but still had enough room to grab the mercenary and hip toss him onto the durasteel deck with tremendous force. The Fist reached down and snapped the stunned crewman’s neck before quickly checking his surroundings.
“Watch my back,” Rajhin whispered to Kamjin as he drug the corpse back into the cabin hallway and toward the room where the other body had been stashed.
The door to the doctor’s office flew open with a whoosh.
“What’s going on out here? I heard a slam. I’ve told yall to keep your fights in the lower decks and away from my–oh good heavens!” An older Quarren in a white labcoat froze as he saw a large Togorian in a body glove dragging a crewman and a series of humanoids in vary states of undress.
“Raj make sure to check the pants to see if they fit master,” Idris yelled from down the hall.
He cocked his head to the side as he tried to evaluate what the emerging alien’s role was. Deciding on nerdy doctor (he knew the type all too well) he added, “also ask the doc there if he has anything for these rashes!”
He sighed hoping he would at least get to punch someone soon.
At that, Thane offered Idris a look that the other man had known him long enough to translate. They were one master-servant joke away from the Firrerreo hurting Kamjin.
How unfortunate.
Oh well, what was obvious to Thane was that neither their captors nor supposed rescuer had much in the way of proper information. In that regard they were—
“Lacking,” Thane said, finishing his thought out loud. “We should go.”
Idris pushed his way past the others and approached the Quarren, who gave an extremely alarmed look as the naked Mandalorian barreled forward.
“‘Scuse me, pardon, eyes up front soldier,” Idris joked with his fellow Councilors before finally making it to the the Quarren. He placed a hand up on the wall and leaned, partially boxing the Quarren in.
“Hey,” he said, giving a playful wiggle of his fingers against the Quarren’s facial tentacles. The Quarren’s eyes went even wider. Idris locked eyes and leaned in closer, smiling widely.
“Be a good lad, and tell us, what is going on here, and more importantly, where we might find some pants.”
Kamjin smirked and rolled his eyes as he went to peak around the corner.
The Quarren looked sheepishly away for a moment before rapidly grabbing Idris’ shoulders and kneeing him in his exposed crouch. The Doc then made a move to duck back into his office.
Idris let out a groan, it was so easy for the Quarren to make contact. Luckily it was also not his first time being kneed there. Doubling over in pain he looked at the others.
“Don’t just stand there!” he yelled.
Thane sighed. Must he do everything himself?
Yes, as a matter of fact. More often than not.
The cold flame of the Force washed over him and Thane enforced his will upon it. The Quarren would be held. In fact, he wouldn’t make so much as another step.
With the speed of thought, the Force complied and solidified around the doctor.
“Get over here,” Thane remarked. The Firrerreo cooly raised his hand somewhat and made a quick pulling gesture. The Quarren’s torso moved and his flailing limbs lagged behind a moment in comical fashion.
Go fish, he joked to himself. He paused and glanced at the others with just his eyes. Well, I like me…
Idris groaned as the doctor slid effortlessly past him towards the Deputy Grand Master. Hunched over he stumbled into the doctor’s office to look around.
Idris quickly discovered a pile of scrubs. He grabbed a pair and threw it out the open door. He thought it was vaguely Kamjin’s size. Looking through the doctors things, he discovered the doctor’s blaster pistol.
Excellent.
He kept a hold of it and sat down at the doctors terminal.
The Mandalorian General nodded his approval as the Voice of the Brotherhood located and tossed some scrubs out the door for Kamjin. He couldn’t wait to get the mental images of the Palpatine and Adenn naked burned from his mind.
He shuffled to a position behind Idris when the man went to examine the terminal, the pistol he’d lifted from the guard held pointed downward against his thigh as he stood behind the Viper of Mandalore and looked over the man’s shoulder.
“I am already incredibly displeased with our current situation,” the genetically altered Dathomirian-Mandalorian stated matter-of-factly.
Kamjin peaked back from around the corner. He noticed the assortment of clothes and brickabrack on the floor. They’re really making a mess, he thought.
“Get what you need from the Doc or kill him. We need to keep moving,” Kamjin said, leaving the others in his rear.
“Oh…” Zxyl grimaced, “Sorry about that, NakedMan of naked.”
Without skipping a beat he casually walked up to the unconscious doc. He studied him for a moment, before shrugging and leveling the stolen pistol at the man’s chest. The Regent of the Brotherhood squeezed the trigger thrice, firing off three blasts of superheated plasma with a choom, choom, choom. As he pulled trigger his helmeted head shifted so that he was looking at the closest colleague, with the words “We didn’t need him for anything, right?” escaping his lips throughout and finishing just before the final pull of the trigger.
Thane sighed. “Was not a threat.”
“Could have been,” Kamjin’s voice claim from around the corner.
“Also could have given us more information than what we currently have. Question then kill. That is like ops one-oh-one guys,” Idris said still prodding that the doctor’s terminal.
“You didn’t pick up any of those fancy object time sensing abilities after your chest became a donut?”
Idris reached out beyond his form and gave a barely noticeable telekinetic push centered on the other Mandalorian’s chest.
“This is locked. Kami can you send your friendly droid to crack it?” He asked standing up from the terminal.
“Oh ya…the droid,” Kamjin said. “Can you go help my Servant with the terminal?” Kamjin fought, poorly, to suppress his laughter.
“Help with what? The ship’s medical records? You’re wasting time!” The voice behind the droid was clearly frustrated.
“I like to humor my servants. Go help or I’m gonna let him try and slice you,” Kamjin seethed as he was trying to see what was around the corner.
“If it is a waste of time why not tell us exactly what the ship is, and where our equipment is? It will be a lot faster if we were properly armed,” Idris complained while waving the doctor’s blaster around. “We know nothing of our actual situation, enemy forces and capabilities, and Kami still really really needs pants.”
The voice emanating from the droid sighed. “You are currently on the Maurader class corvette Dragonsnake in hyperspace to Koudooine. This ship is controlled by a particularly ruthless mercenary company known as Flaming Dragon. Ship’s compliment is one hundred pirates give or take and a squad of Mandalorians you want no part of.” The voice paused to take a breath after dumping that information. “That’s why you need to get your equipment, disable the tractor beams and get to the hanger post-haste. You don’t want to face the entire crew!”
Idris straightened his posture. “The Dragonsnake? Haar Dreki’ormr,” he laughed. “Let’s do this.”
“Mandalorians and their need for their stuff,” Kamjin muttered as he strolled confidently towards the location of their lockers.
Guess we are following the “leader”, Thane mused, falling into a casual step behind Kamjin. His eyes remained focused on any openings in the corridors or potential access ways.
“Sure we do,” declared the Mandalorian General to the droid after shrugging off Idris’ weeee push.
“Off we go,” he muttered as he followed after Skotos and Kamjin with the guard’s blaster pistol in a low ready position.
Whether by luck or the assistance of their unknown benefactor, they arrived at the storage lockers unmolested. Kamjin inspected the door and remembering some old tricks of the trade managed on the first time to get it unlocked.
“Alright, servants,” Kamjin chuckled to himself. “Shall we get our stuff?”
Thane chose to wilfully ignore Kamjin. It was better for everyone that way.
“Pardon my reach,” he remarked instead. The Deputy reached past the Justicar and opened the locker, grabbing his stuff. Just as he was about to leave, Thane made sure to toss Kamjin’s clothes squarely at his face.
Idris barreled past the new Justicar, throwing the blaster he took from the doctor squarely at Kamjin’s crotch. “If they scratched my babies I will burn everyone they ever knew,” Idris said with a relief as he pulled out his armor and weapons.
Kamjin grasped himself as he doubled over onto the ground. “Take - your - time,” he said through gritted teeth.
Rajhin cautiously darted across the open hallway to rejoin the group. He searched through the secure lockers with some frustration until he found his armor and sword. The old soldier slipped his armor on with practiced ease, even in the cramped space of the storage room and examined his sword to ensure it was still sharp and in battle condition.
“We should still proceed with caution, this vessel may have ray shields or other cowardly traps to catch us if we are not careful.” A hint of frustration colored the Fist’s words. He longed to lay waste to this ‘Flaming Dragon’ outfit for the indignity of his and his fellow councilor’s capture but had enough experience to know all the ways shipboard combat could go wrong.
As Kamjin groaned on the floor he had a startling moment of clarity. The ship was silent to their escape. Despite several of them walking around naked and the bodies left in the prison area; there was no alerts sounding.
He grabbed this loose clothes. His hand trembling as the from the blaster to his gonads began to recede.
“Did you guys hear that? No alarms…no rushing foot steps. They don’t know we’re free,” Kamjin said as he pivoted to sit and pull his clothes on.
“Despite what this droid keeps telling us we seem to have time to slow down and figure out what’s happening here.” Kamjin hopped up, pulling his pants up as things settled into place.
Congratulations, you stated the obvious. What other surprises do you hold, oh Justicar?
Thane shook his head. Probably better to keep the inside voice where it is. He had been getting better at that. Instead, he focused on adjusting his gloves as the Firrerreo got the final layers of his gear on.
“Informed decisions,” he stated. “Always preferable.”
Kamjin glanced around as he pulled on his shirt and tied off his robes. “There’s no terminal in here. But, given we’re on a modified corvette getting to the tractor beam controls shouldn’t be much further ahead of us towards the bow.”
Idris finished getting dressed by sliding his helmet on with a sigh of relief.
“Your droid friend has a map. I imagine they can point us directly to where it is at,” He said pointing to the droid. “They also know there is a lot of people on this ship, how many can we expect between here and there? Or maybe trigger a distraction?”
“You’re welcome to the droid,” Kamjin said, as he clipped his lightsabers to their usual spots.
Idris tapped the droid. “Anything we should worry about between us and the tractor beam? I recall it being rather close to the crew quarters and canteen.”
“The ship systems controls are in a highly trafficked area and the room itself is manned at all times. I can get you inside the door but you will need to deal with the crew while I slice the ship systems through this droid.”
“So we best be ready for some violence,” Idris said nodding.
Kamjin hopped on one leg as he pulled on his boot. “We’re ready,” he said, stomping his foot to the ground. “I’m ready for some payback,” he said hopping on alternating feet while shadow boxing. “Feels good to be back in clothes.”
“For the first time in my life, yes, I agree it is a good thing someone is back in clothes.”
Kamjin smirked at Idris. “Let’s go. Lead the way droid.”
Thane took a moment to lean towards Idris. “He is unaware the droid is not autonomous?” the Deputy asked, clearly implying that Kamjin thought it was a functioning droid and not a remote controlled drone.
Idris shook his head. “And he really was the best choice we had for Justicar?” He replied.
Zxyl had tuned everything out when he was reunited with his kit and kaboodles. In that moment, nothing else mattered. He intently studied each piece as he donned or placed it, having poured countless hours over their refinement and construction, weapon or not. As he placed the final piece - the right pauldron that contained the suit’s miniaturized hypermatter reactor - the armor’s circuits closed and everything came online. The Mandalorian General’s crimson heads up display sprang to life, bringing a breadth of information to his attention as Helpful Artificial Lackey finished the final initialization.
"Hello sir," greeted the A.I., his voice only heard by Bes'uliik.
Zxyl muted his helmet’s external vocoder as he began listening in on the conversation of his colleagues. He was ready for violence if it came their way.
"HAL, what the hell is going on?" the Regent asked.
"Unknown, sir. It appears that you and other Councilors have been captured." came the curt reply.
"You don't say?"
"I was disconnected. What did you expect?"
The Dathomirian-Mandalorian sighed, ordering the A.I. to gather as much information as he could before unmuting the bucket’s vocoder ans returning to the conversation in full just as Kamjin told the droid to lead the way.
“What?” the Regent asked, bewildered if he’d heard correctly as he raised his head in Kamjin’s direction.
A voice eminating from the droid replied, “Actually since you now have your equipment you should probably lead the way. This droid is very much not blaster proof and I will need it to slice the ship computer.”
Kamjin shrugged and lead the way. The way was easy enough to follow for anyone who had spent a lifetime on ships and it wasn’t far to the tractor beam controls.
As Kamjin made his way toward the end of the hall Rajhin rushed up and put an arm arcoss the human’s chest, signaling him to stop. In a uncharacteristically soft whisper Rajhin noted, “We should check corners and avoid detection for as long as possible.” He waited for an acknowledgement from Kamjin before lowering his arm and stacking up behind the Justicar.
Kamjin raised an eyebrow as he looked up the lumbering Fist. Smirking, he leaned gently around the corner and noticed a poor mechanic going about his mundane job.
Kamjin’s thought silence may be preferable for the moment. Their luck had somehow held out this long.
With a flicking wave of his fingers he implanted a dangerous thought into the mechanics mind.
“Wha…what?” the mechanic stood up, an uncomfortable bulge having appeared in his overalls. “Oh…owww.” The mechanic reached down trying to situate himself. After a few tugs at the fabric and failed attempts to readjust him he was nearing a panic.
“Oww…ugh…argh. OUCH!” He howled as he took off towards sickbay. Something was wrong and he wasn’t gonna leave it to chance.
“Would you like to take point?” Kamjin said, gesturing towards the now empty hallway.
Rajhin moved up and glanced around the corner to the empty hallway. The Togorian swiftly moved to the opposite wall and crept, as stealthily as he could toward the next corner to sneak a peek. As he approached the corner a small mouse droid came whizzing around and ran straight into the Fist’s exposed foot.
“CURSED DROI—-droid!” Rajhin shook his foot in momentary pain, realizing the volume of his utterance mid-sentence and trying to soften to an angry hiss.
“Huh?” A feminine, but husky voice from around the next corner inquired.
The droid did a 360 and wheeled off in the opposite direction making loud angry beeps.
A Mandalorian in full beskar armor rounded the corner to investigate the disturbance, “What the—A PRISONER HAS ESCAPED!!!”
Kamjin rushed around the corner at the sound of Rajhin cursing. His feet skidded to a halt as he saw the Mandalorian woman scream.
“Dank Farrik, Rajhin,” Kamjin cursed. Reacting on instance he pinched his forefinger and thumb together and twisted. The woman’s voice gurgled for a moment as her neck was snapped.
Her loose head lulled as her body crumpled to the ground. “Is that what you call stealth?” Kamjin chastised as he went to inspect if the Mandalorian had triggered the alarm.
Kamjin held up the woman’s limp wrist. “You’re lucky she didn’t sound the alarm first before she screamed.”
Thane sighed audibly, echoing down the corridor. “Interrogate the dead?” he asked Kamjin pointedly.
He was seeing a recurring theme of impulsiveness from the new Justicar that he didn’t quite care for. With the Mandalorian dead, they had no more information than they had when they woke up.
“I’m sure one of our Mandalorians can get more from her armor systems than she’d have been willing to share with us,” Kamjin responded, gesturing towards Idris and Zyxl.
Idris stood on his tiptoes to get a peer at the body from a distance. He gave the new Justicar a thumbs up.
“I can confirm that is Mandalorian armor and most likely beskar.”
He gave it a good few seconds before moving to saunter past his fellows toward the crumpled body of the Mandalorian.
“Oh you wanted useful information. Got it,” he added as he knelt down to inspect the body.
Kamjin rolled his eyes. He had walked into that one.
Thane had the feeling Kamjin walked into a lot of things. Like doors.
Idris started fussing around with the fallen Mandalorian’s armor systems.
“Blue base, orange trimming…” He mentioned as he worked. “Reliable and lust for life, not uncommon for mercenaries.”
He rolled the body over slightly while he waited for the systems to process the latest command. He cocked his head to the side.
“A krykna signet? Clan Bev’Aaray,” he half muttered to himself. “They do like their merc work.”
The HUD in his helmet flashed as info from the suit began to display across his vision.
“Seeing quite a bit of information on Kami here,” he paused before letting out a short chuckle. “*Warning. Target’s species has not been confirmed. Prepare for both Human and Hutt capture.”
“I’d say the security within Arx has been hacked if that data entry error has gotten its way into the hands of these criminals. Perhaps I need to begin investigating everyone’s security protocols,” Kamjin said as he ground his teeth.
“I think maybe we should run some DNA tests on you,” Idris responsed absentmindly while continuing to poke through the armor’s systems.
Kamjin snickered. “Have you found anything to help us? Like a comm unit to redirect the troops elsewhere?”
“No helping you,” Thane intoned.
Kamjin whipped his head around to look at Thane, his eyes narrowing as he grasped the hidden meaning of the words.
Kamjin wasn’t going to wait for Thane to give another ‘helpful’ comment. He intentionally made the air quotes in his mind. Abandoning the downed Mandalorian and Idris’s ‘helpful’ insights he advanced into the next corridor towards the Tractor Beam controls.
At some point, he has to realize that someone is remotely controlling that droid. And then he’ll start to maybe plan for it.
Thane sighed at his own internal running monologue. The new Justicar seemed to focus on the most unusual things.
“Disable the beam, launch pods, hope for the best?” Thane asked, guessing at the man’s plan.
“You have a better plan?” Kamjin asked over his shoulder. Sometimes the best plan was no plan.
The Deputy tilted his head and knit his eyebrows together in confusion. As if the answer was obvious.
“Eliminate variables,” he responded. If there’s no one to operate the ship, there’s no threat.
“I thought you wanted variables to question,” Kamjin smirked gesturing at the trail of dead crew members he’d left behind them.
He shrugged in response. Thane had no dog in this race and any more energy wasted would be…annoying.
Since they only had information on Kamjin, it didn’t really affect Thane directly.
The Deputy watched as Kamjin entered the tractor beam control room. Inside was…well, exactly what one would expect from what they’d seen thus far: just a guy.
And Kamjin was going to try his hand at mentalism.
Gods no.
“Stand down,” Thane instructed the crewman. “Or die. No difference to me.”
Kamjin’s hand wave fumbled and he tried to cover it as flexing his hand.
“Fine, be direct,” Kamjin said.
“Efficient,” the Firrerreo corrected. At the same time, he flicked out his arm towards the engineer’s control panel and unleashed a torrent of unrestrained power.
Idris followed the others in, still holding the helmet of the slain Mandalorian.
“You know I once thought I had a flair for the dramatic,” he said.
Kamjin stepped forward and looked at the ID badge on the crewman who was absolutely bewildered by the situation. “Okay…Dennis,” Kamjin said, drawing out the crewman’s name. “What’s it gonna be?”