The Rebel Faction

Trazu sighed as he pondered his options. Solving this issue was something Asri was better suited to resolve, with her ability to sneak around and such without being seen. Since it's evident that Miknak was on the station he didn't want to risk Asri getting hurt, or worse, by that bastard and the likely hood he was watching them right now was very high.

If Asri's account of what happened on Nar Shadda is correct, it's likely he never saw my face or knows that I am a Jedi...unless... Trazu remembered the man that confronted him and Vaalum in the warehouse before the fire fight started: his body wasn't among the ones they slew that day, meaning that he had escaped during the battle. Chances that 'he' is here as well are high, which means Miknak will know enough about me to take necessary precautions. This meant he had to assume Miknak knew he was a Jedi and to keep that in mind when and if he confronted Miknak himself. Question was, just how much did he know about him?

Probably easy to find out who I am. Trazu thought with a faint frown: after all, there's not many Trandoshans that have both lilac eyes and are under five feet tall. But would he be able to dig up information about the spirit? Knowledge that he 'had' the spirit however was fairly wide spread in Trandoshan society, so it's possible Miknak would know about it. However the fact that the spirit was now banished wasn't made public knowledge and in the Seren ranks only a select few knew about it: mainly Fikan, who was now deceased, and Lavality herself. Thus the option of 'bluffing' that he still had the spirit was there, though he hoped he wouldn't have to do so.

Back on the immediate issue at hand, Trazu had a different problem to consider. The guards themselves he felt confident he could take care of, especially if they just had standard training. Chances are however that Miknak had some of his own guards aboard to help keep the new 'recruits' in line and those will likely be tougher. Plus those 'things' the guard mentioned that were 'attached' to the commander and staff of the bridge the guard mentioned: who know what those things are. First things first though, he had to get to the central computer and that presented a problem itself: he was no good at hacking, unless you meant the 'destruction' varient of the word.

"If I can clear a path to the central core..." Trazu said in a low voice. "Do you think you or one of your men can remove that barrier? I'd rather not have to just destory the thing."

Asri blinked at Lavality as she stood up walked out: the only reason she could even get away with that was due to the stablizing brace the medics put on that leg, but still there must be a lot of pain. Must be the drugs in her system allowing her to walk like that, but still... She was about to say something to her but Lavality was already gone, leaving Asri puzzled. "I'm about as clueless as you are." She said to the medic. That whole thing about her saying 'she's still alive and just let me borrow her body' bit kind of bugs me. She knew of only one thing that would match that: possession and the only other one she heard of was with the K'Satizitus and he wasn't a pleasent fellow. Thus she couldn't be sure this spirit was really on 'their' side.

After a moment's debate, she took off after her.

***

Trazu stared at Lavality or rather the spirit that was controling Lavality, glancing down at the brace on her leg. "Considering the condition you are in, option one would be best, however the direct route would be the one he most expects us to take, plus we lack any fighters we can use without making it extremely obvious what we are up to." He said. "Thus door number three I suggest we take."

"Lord Trazu..." He heard Asri say in Clan Dialect as she exited the shuttle. "Semothing's net right with hor..."

"I knew." Trazu relpied in kind. "It's ulright. Sho is en ear sido." Asri stared at him and folded her arms, giving him a 'why didn't you tell me before' look, to which Trazu chuckled. "My aplogizes hun." He said. "I'll explain later. In the mean time you and Maskis stay with the ship to make sure no one tries to blow it up while we are gone." He then looked at Lavality and said. "Let's get going, the more time we waste the more time Miknak has to prepare."

There were few situations when Trazu was actually greatful he was so short and this was one of those times. No other Trandoshan, save actual child, would have been able to squeeze through the vents ducts like he was right now. It was quite likely that most other Trandoshans would have been too full of themselves to even consider taking this route anyway: with the warrior like ways of his people, most of them would have preferred to have gone the head on route and face their enemies openly. Trazu however, knew when it was best to swallow his pride to take the more 'embarrassing' option, for the sake of others if not himself. Still, he couldn't help but get a sense of clastrophia.

"How much further?" He asked Lavality behind him after what felt like he had been crawling for hours.

"Not too much further." Came the response. "Take the next right."

"Thank goodness..." He muttered to himself. As he was about to make the turn something stopped him from going any further. It was a familiar feeling he was getting of impending danger, one he knew all too well.

"What's wrong?" He heard Lavality ask.

"The Force..." He replied simply. "It's telling me it's not safe to go this way. Is there another way?"

"There are...but we are two big for those..."

"Kazuk." A part of him had the feeling even if those routes were large enough for them they would still be in danger, which means they were tracking them. But how? After probing the length of the duct walls with the Force he saw no cameras or any other type of sensor. This left him with few options, one of them being figuring out just 'how' they were in danger and how to get around it.

Again he probed with the Force and discovered that each of the entryways in the intersection they were at had a door which used to control air flow. They were all open now, but the threat to them was now clear to him: if they passed through this door and they shut these doors at both ends of the section they were in, they would eventually suffocate. That was unless...he kept the doors from even closing.

"Stay back." He warned her as he removed his lightsaber. It was a little hard to aim due to the tight space, but he was able to point his saber at the right place before igniting it. The hot plasma blade melted the thinner duct metal almost instantly and he felt the resistance of the thicker metal that protected the control mechanizm for the door, but that quickly disappeared as the blade melted through that as well. He jerked the bladed from side to side a bit and heard the satisfying sound of electric wires sparking from being severed in two.

"We'll need to move as fast as we can." He said as he turned off his saber and put it away. "It won't likely take long for them to realize I disabled this door and if Miknak is a much as a bastard as you guys say he is, he'll likely order the whole system shut down next, meaning I'll likly have to cut our way out of here. So the closer we are to our goal when that happens the better."

Asri tapped her claws on the cockpit console, bored out of her skull. She was used to being part of the action, not sitting here waiting around. She was very tempted to walk out of here and do some exploring of her own, maybe knock some merc heads while she was at it. The problem was that there was little doubt that Miknak was keeping an eye on the shuttle from whatever hole he was in on this station, thus would know immediately if she stepped off this ship. This meant she was stuck here until Trazu and Lavality took care of things, or they got killed in the attempt.

She shuddered, the throught of Trazu possibly perishing was a bit much for her to stand. He was the first male Trandoshan to show interest in her beyond dubious friendship and she didn’t want to lose him to anything. She knew he was very capable of handing himself of course, but the worry, and fear, was still there.

Something caught her eye beyond the transparasteel cockpit window. From one of the hallways walked a armored merc. She watched as the merc paused a moment at the entryway and then proceeded to head toward the shuttle.

“Kazuk.” She muttered, realizing the merc was going to look the ship over: with the ramp down he could easily come right in. There was no telling how the man would react to the presence of the medics and Maskis, let alone herself. Granted, Miknak likely already saw Maskis when he was outside the shuttle earlier, but not her. With Trazu and Lavality elsewhere, Miknak could have sent this man to see about catching her. If so he should have sent a squad. She thought with a growl. Then again, this could be an opportunity to get some action. As the man got closer she now could see that not only was this particular merc a Trandoshan, but that he was her height. An idea forming in her head she left the cockpit and found a good ambush position.

It felt like it took longer then it did for the merc to finally ascend the ramp and enter the shuttle, but fortunately Asri was used to this side effect of anticipation. When the moment was right she struck, knocking the man out cold before he knew she was even there. She was tempted to feed off him, as she was a little hungry, but she forced the urge down and instead just killed him by snapping his neck.

Stripping the man was a chore since she was dealing with a dead weight, but she managed to get the light weight armor off him and put it on her person. By now she realized there was a problem: like all Trandoshans this guy wore no boots, thus her white feet were exposed and might as well be a red flag saying ‘imposter here!’. Unless…

Quickly she ducked into the cabin where the two medics waited, giving them a fright before they realized it was her. She could sense Maskis looking at her oddly, but she ignored him as she dug into the medics bag and finally fished out what she was looking for: a bottle of iodine.

“Got a cut?” One of the medics asked.

“No.” Asri said as she opened the bottle and started spreading the stuff on her feet. “This wouldn't be a good disguise if it can be blown by them simply looking down.” When she was done her feet were stained a slightly orangish yellow. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was better then just going out there with white feet. Thankfully she didn’t need to do the same with her hands or her head, as the armor covered everything else, even had Trandoshan tailored gloves and helmet!

“Time for some fun.” She said with a grin, then put on the helmet and walked out as if she belonged on the station.

~~~

Trazu sighed and look down the walls and the hallway, seeing no control panel in sight: it was likely either around the corner on the other side of the field or hidden. There was a rather ‘out of place’ looking cable hanging just beyond the laser field though.

“Oh don’t tell me…” Trazu thought as he tapped into the Force. Sure enough, the ‘mist vision’ revealed that cable powered the lasers. “Some one was either sloppy or didn’t count on a Jedi to break in.” He muttered as he took out his lightsaber, ignited it and flipped the switch that would keep it lit, then tossed it.

The saber flew cleanly through the laser field and severed the cable before the blade buried itself into the wall on the other side. Using the Force, he called the saber back to him and turned it off. “Way should be clear now.” He said.

Trazu ‘felt’ the danger via the Force-based warning sense before the look of surprise and warning on Lavality’s face registered when she looked at him. He dove and twisted, bringing up his lightsaber and igniting it to deflect the figures attack, then blasted it with a Force push, sending it crashing into the wall. While keeping it pinned to the wall via the Force, he rolled to his feet, then was forced to release the figure as he couldn’t attack and keep it pinned at the same time. Either way, it should have been stunned enough to be unable to parry, since he could not sense any Force Sensitivity in this figure, but parry it did and when he got his first real good look at it he knew why.

Cyborg. He thought with annoyance as the borg blocked his every strike: might as well have been a Force Sensitive he was fighting. Almost that is. While the cybernetic parts of this thing could enable it to match him blow for blow, they couldn’t replicate the Force itself. So he used the Force to jam the joints of the cyborgs limbs. It looked confused for a moment when it’s limbs stopped working for it, then Trazu lopped off it’s head with his saber and to make it doubly sure it didn’t keep causing them trouble he sliced it’s limbs off as well.

With a faint moan he rubbed his head. Major Force abilities like that was a fast way of giving him a headache and knew he should avoid doing any more of them if at all possible, for if they came up against Miknak himself, he will need everything he has to fight him. “Lets go…” He said finally. “Hopefully there’s no more of these things in our way.”

~~~

Asri explored the base, looking for the best area to cause some trouble. Thankfully no one bothered to talk to her yet, partly because they were shit scared of her: well of what the armor represents, not her specifically. Then again, she wasn’t exactly going to go blowing her cover by assuring the innocents that she was on their side.

“Hey!” Someone called behind her and she had to force herself not to spin around and shoot the man. Instead she turned around calmly to regard the speaker, whom she quickly realized was another one of those mercs: there was a group of about five of them behind him. “The Boss wants us to go to the central core ASAP. Apparently we have intruders making their way there.”

Central Core…that’s where Trazu and Lavality are going. Asri thought as she quickly made the connection. Considering how well armed this group was and no doubt they would pick up more along the way, this would cause those two trouble for sure and Trazu is he only one in top fighting shape. A plan started forming in her head as she nodded to the man and fell in behind the group, which moved at double time. Soon enough, ten more joined the group.

Since she didn’t know the layout of the base and could be coming up to the core room at any moment, she knew had to work quickly. Staying at the back of the group she waited until the troop rounded a corner, then grabbed the closest merc and snapped his neck before he could yell in surprise. She was able to repeat this five times before they arrived at the door to the core room.

“What happened to the rest of the group?” He asked the troop before punching in the needed code. When the rest of the troop looked behind them at her, she looked behind herself and simply shrugged. “Those slackers.” The leader growled, then something apparently caught his eye and he strode toward her. “What happened to your feet?” He demanded.

Asri looked down and realized that her improvised skin dye was rubbed off in places, revealing her white scales. With a grin she looked at the man and said. “I guess I’m a T’Doshok of many colors.” Before the man could react to the obvious fact that she wasn’t one of them, she jabbed her claws into his throat. His armor prevented the blow from killing him, but it left him gagging and choking. Not wasting any time, Asri bolted, hot blaster fire on her heels as the troop took off after her.