The Rebel Faction

Qive's first thought as Vodo deftly deflected the blaster bolt aimed at the engineer was I knew it!!. Though Vodo had not revealed his characteristic Jedi weapon until now, he had deflected Qive's question about it during the trip here. Somehow though, Qive had known that even the tiny Jedi master was not above carrying around a Jedi symbol enshrined in thousands of years of tradition and history.

His second thought was What the hell just happened?

Qive lived to fight. He had fought in countless battles as a mercenary, on worlds he could no longer remember for reasons that he did not care about. He had fought with races from across the galaxy: soldiers, warriors, and fanatics of every type. He had encountered more styles of fighting than most people knew existed, and was proficient in a majority of them. In other words, Qive had been in his share of fights. When fighting, he maintained extremely precise control over his body, ready to react or move at a nanosecond notice.

And he was absolutely certain that he had not squeezed the hair-trigger of his 434 and fired at the engineer.

But apparently he had. A blaster bolt had nearly re-arranged the engineer’s face, and since Qive was pointing the only blaster in the room at him, there weren’t many other possibilities.

“That was foolish. If you want to fight....”

Vodo motioned toward Qive.

"By all means.”

The Jedi Master seemed eager to fight. Qive, despite his mild confusion, held the very same feeling. Then it hit him.

Vodo wanted to fight. He had obviously used the force to make Qive fire the first shot, so that he could stand behind his Jedi Code and “protect” the innocent. Qive smiled.

“I think it’s you, Jedi, that is interested in a fight. You should be careful what you wish for.”

Qive had his orders. Tir Esias wanted Vodo dealt with diplomatically. However, at this moment, he didn’t care about his orders. Besides, he wouldn’t kill the Jedi Master… not yet anyway.

In a swift motion, Qive’s free hand swung up behind him and pulled a long vibrosword from a sheath that had been hidden behind his head. Though many found fighting with melee and ranged weapons simultaneously ineffective, it was an art Qive had mastered long ago. In the same motion as his draw, he fired off a trio of blaster bolts at the Jedi, forcing him to react quickly and deflect them harmlessly toward the ceiling.

Before Vodo could take the offensive, Qive lunged forward, bringing his vibrosword down in an arching strike toward the Jedi Master. Vodo brought the weightless blade of his lightsaber up toward Qive’s blade to slice it in half. To his surprise, the two blades made contact, and though managed to block the attack, his lightsaber did not eviscerate the vibrosword’s blade. The look of surprise on the Jedi’s face was priceless.

Qive stepped back.

“Cortosis weave. Designed for exactly this situation.”

Then he leaped back on the attack, firing off a salvo of blaster bolts, as he came forward with his lightsaber-proof sword.

Vodo's mention of the camera was completely irrelevant to Qive. While the Jedi was used to the law and order of Naboo, he was forgetting that he was currently aboard a Star Destroyer in deep space, owned by a sinister galactic organization. Tir Esias had asked Qive to try and keep things non-violent, he had never prohibited violence. Te secrecy of the Union far outweighed any other concerns. If the Jedi had to lie to himself to justify his actions, breaking the Jedi Code, it was only a reflection on how far the ancient order of the Jedi had fallen from its heyday.

"Come, lets do this."

Qive stared down his minute opponent. As a Jedi, a Master no less, he was a deadly opponent. His force-aided acrobatics in conjunction with his lightsaber would be nigh impossible to defend against. Still, the hallway was a confined space, and Vodo would only be able to hop around so much. And while Qive had faced a Jedi before, albeit long ago, it was very unlikely that Baas had ever fought a Gen'Dai.

Which meant that the upcoming battle was fairly evenly matched.

Qive reached down and pulled his other "Deathhammer" from its holster at his side. He squeezed the stock like a vise, vowing not to be defeated with the same force-trick again. His grip on the vibrosword was already heavy handed.

"You don't know what you're getting into Jedi."

And he took aim, squeezing the trigger of his high-powered blaster pistol, firing an endless salvo down the hall at Vodo.

The end piece of the blaster pistol fall unceremoniously to the floor, leaving a large, useless portion of the weapon ensnared in Qive's huge hand. The huge Gen'Dai brought launched a powerful strike toward the Jedi, forcing him to parry. Vodo easily blocked the blow, but the sheer power in the blow made him take a few steps backward, to absorb the force. He reflexively moved to fire his blaster at Vodo, but remembered the Jedi had sliced his prized weapon in half.

Another reason to remove his head from his shoulders.

Taking advantage of Vodo's backward motion, Qive charged forward, and launched a furry of strikes with surprising quickness. Vodo's mastery of the Makashi form allowed him to deflect all the strikes, but Vodo quickly discovered the underpowered (for Qive) strikes had not been the primary attack, but merely a diversion. As the final blow, a upward slice toward Vodo's head, forced Vodo to parry high Qive launched the remains of the heavy, durasteel plated blaster at Vodo's torso. Vodo was knocked backward, but used the Force to slow his momentum and land on his feet.

His off hand free, Qive brought it up to rest upon the hilt of the vibrosword. Though he preferred ranged combat, Qive was proficient in numerous forms of melee combat, both hand to hand and armed. It was easily apparent that Vodo wanted a duel of swordsmanship, as he done all he could to deprive Qive of his ranged weapons. Qive was far from disarmed... but Vodo was unaware of that fact. Surprise, as had just been demonstrated, often worked where brute strength had failed.

As of yet though, Qive's virbosword had been meeting Vodo's sabre one handed. The blows were strong, but only a fraction of what Qive could manage. Even aided by the force, he knew that Vodo would find them particularly difficult to face for any duration of time. Unable to maneuver, he would be forced to parry blow after blow, sapping his strength.

Then Qive would crush him.

Sword at guard, he began moving toward the Jedi, his hands firmly gripped on the hilt.

The bolt of Force lightning slammed into Qive's chest, sending a searing pain through his upper body. The blast knocked Qive backward, and he slammed hard into the bulkhead. His body went slack for a moment, and the vibrosword dropped to his side, grasped loosely in one hand. Qive shook his head.

What the hell?!?

A myriad of thoughts were running through Qive's head, but they were jumbled in a combination of surprise and confusion. Rather than try and make sense of them, he focused on the one thought that stood out above the rest.

Get up.

And so he did. He pushed off against the bulkhead and got to his feet. He swung the sword back up into a guard position, bringing both hands back to grip the hilt tightly. He stared warily at Vodo.

The Jedi Master had dropped his lightsaber. What had happened next... Qive had difficulty comprehending. A concentrated stream of something (electricity???) had shot from Vodo's outstretched hand and sent him flying. Racking his brain for notes on Force users, he remembered vaguely one deadly technique known as Force Lightning. But it had been mentioned only when dealing with Force users who tapped the "Dark Side" i.e. were Sith or Dark Jedi. Qive dismissed the thought. Semantics didn't really matter, because Vodo had obviously used something.

They always say, fight fire with fire.

Qive suddenly swung the vibrosword upward, but the quick movement turned out only to be a swift sheathing technique. Qive reached down to his belt, and his massive hand retrieved a thermal detonator. A single press armed the deadly explosive.

"What's it going to be Jedi?"

It took every ounce of Qive's self control not to lash out at Vodo as he leveled his cane at him. His muscles tensed, ready to lash out. He did so not out of some sense of honor, or respect for Vodo. He did it for another reason entirely.

Tir Esias was standing at the far end of the hallway.

It made absolutley no sense for Qive to fear Tir Esias. First of all, he was only following Esias's orders. Secondly, he was blind, and had no way of knowing what was going on down the hall. Qive knew that. But Esias had an aura about him, he always seemed to know everything. So he froze.

Vodo stepped past him. Qive's eyes remained fixed down the hallway. Then Esias spoke.

"Master Jedi, I never expected to find you here. I was under the impression that you had retired for the night."

He started moving down the hall.

"I certainly hope Qive hasn't gotten you lost."