Rutian poked his head out from behind a box before darting back into the cover that the plasteel containers were providing. The trio, including the unconscious Alater, was hold up inside the secret warehouse that had been hidden inside the cave they had all taken shelter in. A quick observation led Rutian to believe they were amongst the few living souls inside the place. Besides the occasional technician it seemed the only other things here were boxes and droids. The droids were all busy moving things about, and didn’t seem to even notice the trio huddled in their hiding place.

“I think we’re safe. There doesn’t seem to be but one or two people roaming about, monitoring the machines and the machines don’t seem to be programmed for much more than moving boxes around as ordered.” Rutian said, squatting back down beside Namyr and taking the Lyaer’tsa up in his hand.

“Sort of ironic that the very people that shoot us down are actually the ones now providing us shelter, don’t you think?” Nams asked her hands on her own blades. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered or had to move. They had a mission to fulfill, and still had to manage to find a way to escape.

“I suppose, though how we’re going to do this I’m not quite sure. Alater should be regaining consciousness soon, but if we just sit here and wait we may be discovered. The two of us could probably take what little opposition this is, but it would leave Alater undefended. It’s a tactical nightmare.” Rutian pondered, his hand grasping the leather cased handles of the Lyaer’tsa firmly.

Namyr placed a hand on Rutian’s shoulder and he leaned his head back to meet with hers. For a minute they sat there, weapons ready, lekku entwined, before they both made a mutual thought, and separated. Like twins the two of them sat at opposite ends of their protective boxes, and prepared to strike.

Rutian spun around the other side of their cover right as the improvised weapon exploded. Immediately fire alarms went off and the simple droids raced over to try and extinguish the flames. The few technicians also raced towards the firey explosion, only to find themselves cut off by two of the best melee specialists, each wielding extravagant and dangerous weapons. As Namyr engaged her own enemies, Rutian charged towards his.

His steps were like water, flowing over rocks in a creek. His robe revealed almost none of his movement, making him seem to float like a wraith towards the surprised technician. The man barely had time to begin and draw a blaster before the long bladed end of the Lyaer'tsa stabbed through his foot. The man let out a scream that was silenced with a gurgling noise as Rutian drove his palm into the man's throat with a flick of the wrist. The second man managed to draw a vibroknife before Rutian wrapped a quick leg around his rear thigh. Using the Lyaer'tsa, still stabbed into the man's foot, as leverage Rutian twisted his body and landed two consecutive blows, crushing the technician's skull with a beautiful crack.

Rutian pulled the blade of his weapon out of the man's foot and looked over to find Namyr already wiping the blood from her blades. Something about that look in her eyes, the calm acceptance of death, embracing everything at once as she took a life, excited him greatly. A small gulp was necessary to swallow the large lump that had begun to accumulate in his throat. He slowly walked over, folding up his weapon as he went.

"What now?" Rutian asked, trying not to stair. There was blood on his knuckles and part of his robe, making him look like some sort of crazed maniac when mixed with the half-conscious stare.

"Indeed." Rutian replied, beginning to wipe the blood off of his knuckles. It had been a long time sense he had been in a fight, especially one as serious as this. It wasn't often that a fighter pilot for the Navy got to fight in actual melee combat, but it was what he was good at, what he enjoyed. Sure, he was a good pilot, even a great pilot, but it wasn't the same as feeling the life of another slip through his fingers like grains of sand. That was true control, true power, and it made him feel complete.

Rutian looked back towards where Alater was still laying unconscious one more time before heading off down the stairs. By the solid walls and steep decline of the staircase, Rutian could tell they were going to be headed down for a while. It made sense for the inner parts of the warehouse to be stored deeper within the planet's core. The farther down you got, the less heat you lost and the hotter it got. Geothermal energy was a valuable resource and many were loathe to even consider losing it, let alone letting it go to waste.

"This could take a while." Rutian said, looking down the long staircase.

"You'd think they would install a turbolift or something?" Namyr replied, also taking a look down the staircase. It was obvious that the door they would need couldn't be too far down, but how long was another question. The trip downwards was starting to seem endless when the pair came across a solid door, with no obvious security.

"Seems easy enough to me." Rutian muttered, huffing a bit from the climb down the stairs.

Rutian and Namyr half dove into the small hallway as the door began to close. Rutian's flowing blue and silver robes nearly caught on the door, and he had to spin out of the way to let Nams slip through as well, the door closing with a hiss. Rutian smiled and stared down the hallway, looking at the very obvious end of the one lane passageway. Several doors dotted the hall, but only one was made out of authentic wood, and ornately carved. Rutian smiled and the two approached at a sort of double time jog. This would have to be over quick, as surely there was security here, and they weren't exactly discreet.

"Door?" Rutian said, holding up his hand in a gentlemanly manner.

"Oh, after you." Namyr responded, a sadistic grin spreading across her face to match the toothy one cracking onto Rutian's. With a swift kick the wooden hinges of the door splintered and the two rushed into the room.

A small man, sitting behind a desk, shot up and seemed to begin to demand what the outrage was, but then shut his dropping jaw when his eyes answered the obvious question. Rutian extended his Lyaer'tsa with a flick of the wrist and glared at the man.

"I really do not appreciate being shot down. In fact, it quite annoys me." Rutian said, moving towards the man. He made only two steps before a red light illuminated the room and a small siren went off. Two hidden doors opened on each side of the room and four security guards poured out, stun batons in hand. Rutian and Namyr nodded to each other once before turning to attack.

Rutian cracked his wrist and put the Lyaer'tsa behind his back, preparing for the onslaught. The two men charged at the prepared Twi'lek, stun batons sizzling through the air as they swung as one. Rutian waited until they had almost landed, and the suddenly dropped nearly to the ground. With amazing flexibility he bent back up, staffed weapon coming over his head. Locking the weapon behind their necks he twisted in his grip, and flew over their hands. Confusion didn't have time to set in before he spun the weapon, slinging both men to the ground. One smashed his head against the corner of the desk with a sickening crunch.

Rutian waited, Lyaer'tsa dissembled, for the second man to rise. As he rose, and lashed out in anger, Rutian gained wrist control. With a twist of his arm the man let out a yelp and dropped his weapon. Slowly he crawled to his knees, pain shooting up his arm. Rutian stepped all the way around him, tearing his shoulder from its socket before ending it by snapping his neck. Picking up his weapon he turned to see Namyr finishing a deadly dance with her exotic weapons. The two headed towards each other, and then towards the desk, finding the short man cowering in the fetal position.

"Pathetic." Rutian mattered, raising his weapon to end the small human's life.

"No, but that does." Rutian said, looking at the quicksilver shine in the sky. It wasn't often that a fully armed Stormtrooper transport arrived in such a place, but the missiles streaming from its dual launches made quite a site. Only a good one hundred feet off the ground, the small escape shuttle exploded, their mission complete. Namyr and Rutian turned around to the sound of clawed scales scraping against the hangar floor. Trying to wipe the oil off of his already midnight black scales, Alater approached the two of them with a frown.

"You left me? And then you went and had all this fun without me?" He half growled, half snarled as he approached the two, Long Fang's giant form slung over his shoulder. Rutian and Namyr just smiled at him and headed out into the snow.

It was sort of peaceful now, burning shrapnel falling from the sky aside. The cold and the snow, what had once been their worst nightmare, now blanketed the area outside the hangar in a sort of peaceful sheet. The cold didn't seem to be as bad here, and the trio all watched the heavily armed transport descend from the sky. Rutian turned to Alater, and gave him a once over; he didn't look at that bad for somebody that had just spent a deal of time as an unconscious lump. The shuttle landed, and Alater headed out towards the shuttle, leaving Alater and Namyr alone for a moment.

As Namyr started to move towards the shuttle, Rutian wrapped a long arm around her waist and turned her around, firmly pressing against him. He looked into her golden orbs for a brief moment before planting a kiss firmly on her lips. When he let her go Namyr gasped a bit, and then watched as Rutian simply strode off, never looking back. He hopped onto the shuttle and passed a stormtrooper on the way in, standing there holding onto a support bar.

Rutian watched the events before his eyes from the cockpit, but didn't believe them. His hands wrung the leather of the Lyaer'tsa until his hands bled, and his knuckles seemed to pop out of his blue skin. Rage, anger, confusion filled his heart and something crept back into him; a darkness he had been warding off. Betrayal had struck home again and Rutian had walked right into it.

I told you, you can only trust me. Only I will never betray you, only I will bring you happiness.

The voice echoed in his head, calling for blood, calling for the anger rising in his heart. Instead Rutian took his pain out of the controls and slammed on the repulsorlifts and the shuttle shot up into the sky. Returning to the ship, Rutian locked himself into his room.

Rutian sat down on his one piece of furniture, a couch, and placed a hand on his brilliant blue head. In his other hand was a good year of Correlian Ale, being thoroughly nurtured. It wasn't often that the blue Twi'lek drank, but for some reason he was still mopey about his big mistake. Mistakes were not something Rutian made, ever, but he had done it this time, and it had been a whopping of a mistake. His datapad buzzing brought him out of his mildly drunken stupor.

Open your damn door.

Rutian stared at the datapad in semi-disbelief before gliding towards the door. He should have thought before he opened it, as he was wearing nothing more than a skin tight undersuit that he wore under his flight suit. Shuffling over some things scattered across the ground, Rutian finally reached his door to the sound of his datapad buzzing on the table across the room. Pushing the button for the door to open he was surprised to find Namyr there with some kind of medical sheet in her hand.

"Hey." Was all she said before she moved into his room, golden orbs looking over half-disgusted at the mess that had become Rutian's quarters.

"What do you want." Rutian said, more of a comment than a question. He tapped one of his lekku idly before Namyr reached out to grasp his hand and drag it away from the brain tail.

"I've been sent because your CO believes you managed to damage a lekku on the mission and it's causing you to make lapses in judgment. As I am a Twi'lek, an available medic, and he thinks we have some kind of past, here I am." She said, placing the clipboard on her hip.