OOC:

Just a story development post for me, a kind of a warm-up for me, Kand and Helena's development story, sorry that Helena couldn't be here for our last story in the saga. 

    Jenny followed her team led by one of Kroh’s handpicked men, with Kand by her side, and the others split amongst the other groups. They had made their way to the landing dock, splitting up so no one could identify them,  passing through Civil protection patrols with fake IDs and disguises, with Jenny passing off as a twilek dancer at a local bar which she knew well, for she had once treked there to find answers to her parents’ murders. Trouble didn’t come their way and Jenny was grateful for that, she had called Leia about the situation and was grateful she knew Ella’s whereabouts and would soon end the whole thing through and through, her katana dying for Ella’s blood. She knew that this katana was the present that she was given at her 12th birthday and was called the Chi’sei blade, set for their revenge, for they had known death was coming for them, and the only thing that could be done was if their daughters avenged them, a feat that will soon be achieved in Tatooine, for that was the place where everything will end soon.

    They arrived at the dock, meeting back together, ready to put Ord Mantell behind them, all poised to get on their ships and shuttle, splitting the platoon amongst the ships, Jenny getting a lift on the Wraith shuttle with Kand, a sense of familiarity as she entered, sitting by Kand, waving her Katana around in practice, almost hitting Kroh’s handpicked man as he passed and avoided it, muttering in disgust.

“Sorry, didn’t see you there, you sort of snook up on me, guess that goes with that mysterious personality of yours.” Jenny chuckled as she commented on him, almost getting a chuckle from Kand because the squad wasn’t at all familiar with these handpicked men like they were with Kroh, and there would be some awkardness. She turned to Kand, asking him as everyone split here got inside the ship and settled, while still waving her Katana around to a flow where she’d be able to control it and keep her heart calm as she learned it from her mother:

“So, Kand, how are you, last we talked, we were inside the wreck of the Death Star, couldn’t believe it myself, but was amazed all the same to be walking through history.”

    “I’m fine, same feeling about the Death Star, you looked like you knew the place by the fact that you couldn’t keep up with the platoon after you came back to the shuttle.” Kand answered, a flash of excitement in his eyes and switching his attention to the Katana Jenny held in her hand, so interested by its origin for these were very rare throughout the galaxy.

“Yeah, well, my father once served on both the Death stars and he escaped both times, witnessing the space battle on the old Death Star with Vader and Luke as he flew in the core and destroyed it, he had heard stories about the two with him able to see the spirits of the death, whichever side they came from, to tell the two as having been related father and son, which made witnessing their last meeting on the new Death Star all the more dejected because of Vader becoming weak and succumbing to his sins, the Emperor dead at who knows which hand, and the Empire split into fractions unable to unite. My father has worked hard to unite them with his trusted position in the Senate after he retired from the stormtrooper corps, but it all ended so bad when he was killed, the Senate switching its attention back on the traitor Thrawn when if the Empire were united once again, Thrawn could be taken care of easily. Life does tend to have so much regret or remorse about.” Jenny replyed, looking back, not really knowing why she explained what her father has seen and done, but more to give him peace so that she’d be ready for the task ahead.

“Yeah, but lucky I have none in my life, I have only hatred for the rebels, who have killed Shara for not getting to their purpose, she was only trying to make a living and it ended up being her death, the bastards… I only need to seek revenge, and Helena has to seek hers on Tatooine too, when the time comes.” Kand continued with explanations of Helena’s story, Jenny stopping him before he started his own, saying with her heart once deprived of her sister’s wedding’s happiness at the gloomy story, hating the New Republic even more after that:

“I already know about that from your diary entry that I found in your room when I met you, didn’t actually express what I felt about it, for I wanted to rip the evil hearts of everyone in the new Republic. I can’t help hiding it now that we’re on our way to get rid of Albatross once and for all. Ella is going to be found on Tatooine too, she is after an imperial squad that once did something to her, I’ll tell you everything, Kand, once we both finish our revenges, it was great to meet you.”

“You too, Jenny, you’re quite the mysterious girl, as people often say. By the way, I can’t help wondering about that Katana of yours.” Jenny knew the question would come up sooner or later, and so she told the story about the Katana, letting his see the golden words written on it and the dragon that made up the hilt with its cardinal red background:

“It was forged in the fires of Mustafar, the stories of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s duel passing through its lava lakes by those who once witnessed it and only got to tell the tale in their last days of living, forged by a man who had many expertise in it, quitting on forging the last sword to a failing pupil, Ella. I persuaded him to forge one more, for his skills at making the Katana was unbeatable in the galaxy, as were his stories, for his family have passed here for generations, forging swords with the minerals on the planet, his stories never ceasing for his family had been throughout the galaxy since the beginning. He helped me forge this sword on the account that I would kill Ella who had used the sword for the wrong purpose in supporting Thrawn, his death following quickly by Ella’s lover, Dakine, her hands too full to kill him. The last message of him encrypted on the blade: seek revenge or do not seek it at all, for I had told him what I set out to do, the purpose being as same as him, hopefully his spirit will remain in the blade to guide me to her death and my parents’ peace and all those who suffered in this assassination.”

“Nice, I love it, it’s very beautiful, I’d love to have a sword like that.” Kand commented on both the story and the sword, complimenting Jenny’s taste in Katanas, for she simply adored them as the best melee weapon ever. Jenny holstered the blade and took out her repeating blaster that she had picked up from one of the mercenarys in the Guildhall, checking it was loaded and ready for battle, as Arnaut came upon on the intercom, speaking to all the ships as they came upon the familiar planet of Corellia:

“How are you doing, Wraiths, we’re coming on the planet, Corellia soon, get yourself ready to meet Major Talos, and be sure to have a good greeting for him.” Jenny was sure she would, probably rifle pointed at his face or something, a guy that knew where Albatross was, a face of Albatross coming upon her mind, thinking of the squad’s goal in grabbing him and getting that confession that would earn their freedom, it was something that could make her really happy after all her sorrows and all the other sorrow stories she heard, especially Kand’s and Helena’s. Vatak'ultuka was all she had left for Kand before the mission continued on Corellia, good luck, getting through the mission alive.

OOC:

The Wraiths are all together as a squad, no splitting. Only Kroh’s men actually split up, just put them out of sight and mind for now. They’ll come back later. On this shuttle, there’s us and one of Kroh’s men, the pilot. ‘tis it.

The Wraiths huddled themselves into the dark corners of the ship, laying whatever shoddy fabrics they could find over themselves as makeshift blankets. Everyone had stripped out of their armor, the unfitted suits not making for easy resting. They stood, somewhat cleaned and polished, in the back room, all in a nice line. Each person slept with their gun close tucked close by, though. There were some things you just didn’t let out of sight.

Arnaut himself was sitting toward the back, propped up against the cusioned bench. His modified A-280 nestled itself neatly between his legs, covered by a shoddy piece of material that might have once been a rain poncho. It wasn’t much now, torn and tattered, and – most distrubing of all – what appeared to be bite marks along the edges.  Arnaut didn’t know what kind of vermin had teeth that large, but he wasn’t inclined to find out. His pack was crumpled up next to him, containing what few possessions he owned. Mainly weapons and ammo, obtained from the Guildhall, and a few credit chips. Nothing like the equipment load-out for normal missions, but, then again, this wasn’t really a normal mission.

His half-shut his eyes, trying his best to feign sleep. He didn’t need his troopers worrying about their squad leader’s insomnia. They would, Arnaut knew. Wraiths looked out for one another like that. Besides, it was self-induced. His body was dead-tired and he could feel it. If he could’ve just clear his mind, and stopped fretting about the mission, he would’ve probably been out a long time ago.

There were just too many ifs though! If Talos was still on Corellia. If Talos even knew where Albatross was. If Albatross hadn’t already set his plans into motion, which was the scariest “if”. If he had begun, numerous Imperial planets could already be suffering a worse fate than that of Serrell. Albatross’ obviously large reserves of virus bombs, which had proved devastating to Serrell, coupled with his numerous labs filled with genetically engineered creatures, which had torn apart Kroh’s former gang on Corellia quite easily, meant that he could take more than a few systems to himself quite easily.

The only thing stopping him was consolidation, as far as Arnaut could tell. His bombs and ‘creature creators’ were spread out on dozens of planets and one couldn’t simply ‘mail’ those things. Moving them, in any real quantities, would require a lot of money, and a lot of black market contacts. In order to bring them all together, he’d have to make a trip to each planet to pick them up, or send out people to do it for him. Probably the latter; Albatross relied on underlings a lot more than he probably should. Arnaut thought about that for a second, deciding he could probably exploit that fact sometime later, and tucked it into the back of his mind.

Something shuffled in one of the back compartments, and Arnaut’s eyes shot open, all false pretenses of being asleep gone at once. There shouldn’t have been anyone back there. The pilot was in the cockpit and all the Wraiths, Arnaut confirmed with a quick once-over, were in the lounge area, presumably asleep.

The shuffling came again and all but confirmed it to Arnaut that there wasn’t just some loose cargo shifting around. There was someone back there. He stood up slowly, dropping off his blanket and hefting his rifle up. RK stirred and his eyes opened a slight bit.

“...Arnaut?” he drawled tiredly. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, and noticed Arnaut was violently waving his finger in front of his lips. Silence. RK was immediately alert. Using the Wraiths rudimentary hand-signal talking, he asked, Everything alright?.

Two men, maybe enemies Arnaut signed back, followed by a quick jerk of his thumb in the direction of the rear compartments.

I backup? RK indicated toward his rifle.

Please, Arnaut responded, and turned toward the door. RK moved into position behind him.

Arnaut shook the tension out of his shoulders, raised his A-280, and keyed the door. It hissed open, only screeching slightly on its ungreased track. He moved in, gun raised, ready for anything. It was silent. The only things he could see were a few crates illuminated from the light streaming out of the open doorway. That was the shuttle’s ‘legitimate’ cargo, in case they ran into any patrols. Other than that, though, the room was dark. Not one for leaving a job unfinished, though, he flipped on the light, and moved in, poking around behind the crates. RK, providing backup, stayed near the doorway, in the other room, or at least Arnaut thought he did. He didn’t look back, a fact that he’d regret later.

He was almost through when suddenly he was being carried to the floor. The full-bodied weight behind his attacker’s lunge smashed them both into the group, much to the dismay of Arnaut’s right shoulder, and sent his A-280 spinning out of reach. A knife came within an inch of his face, planting itself into the ground next to his nose. Arnaut, still not sure of what was happening, tucked in and then kicked out with both feet. He caught his attacker mid-jump, right in the stomach, and flipped him onto his back. Arnaut scrambled on top of him, placing the edge of the near-miss knife against his throat. The thrashing stopped almost instantly.

“Who...the hell...are you?” Arnaut rasped, still sucking air into his lungs from the first tackle. It looked as if his attacker was about to reply, when suddenly he broke into a mischievous grin, and stared at something behind Arnaut. Arnaut had the same sinking feeling he’d experienced in the streets of Corellia a few weeks earlier, just as the cold, metal ring of a blaster muzzle was placed on the back on his head.  Except, he hadn’t had RK back then. There was a large crack and all of a sudden, Arnaut’s second attacker was lying on the floor next to him, blood leaking from the gash just below his skull where the butt of RK’s gun had laid him out. Arnaut’s first attacker stopped smiling.

“Now, I’m going to ask again. Who the hell are you?”

“Sp-specter,” the man gulped, obviously startled at the quick takedown of his companion. “Imperial special ops. That’s...that’s Gimp. We were...” he flinched, involuntarily. Arnaut pressed the knife a little harder into his throat, just short of drawing blood.

“Do continue,” Arnaut said, and it was his turn to smile mischievously.

“We were...we were sent to arrest you.” That made Arnaut smile all the more.

OOC:

Not the best of intros, but it is one. You’re in the story now, Gimp and Specter.

I’ll leave it up to you two to decide why you chose to join us and the wraiths on our quest. Heh, just an idea I just thought of...it’d be (kind of) funny if we just sorta...skipped past that part, and had your chars keep hinting at it with a little fear mixed with humiliation, or something. One of those taboo topics, a ‘Don’t-wanna-talk-about-it’, followed by a grimace sort of thing. I dunno. Just a thought. Come up with something, though, and start posting away!

I recommend you two read Through the Scope and Dead Men Tell No Lies a bit (skimming mainly) before you post too much here. That’ll get you up to speed. Alternately, you can find me on IRC and get the really, really, condensed Cliffnotes-esque version if you want. Your choice.

Anyway, let’s all start posting more! I want to see more than just two posts a day from the entire squad. As a squad, we should be averaging anywhere from three to six a day. Let’s pick up the pace!

Ror and Gimp boarded the shuttle as the renegade squad prepared to take off. They were sent on a mission to arrest a squad of traitor troopers who were in part responsible for the destruction of an entire planet. Ror and Gimp quietly got behind two boxes and sighed in relief, they had no one guarding the cargo hold. Good now all we do is wait for them to let their guard down and we jump out and take them in surprise. "Gimp lets wait here a minute, they are probably still tense and alert."

Gimp looked over to the Ithorian, "Sounds good, do you think ops was crazy to send us to take out an entire squad by ourselves."

Ror smiled, "Were VE's version of black ops, next to that ARC program. I still can't believe we don't get access to any of their information." Ror thought about all that had happened to him recently. It wasn't long ago that he had been with Paladin squad as a normal trooper fighting by his squad leader Lucky and ASL Sam. That changed soon though, after the vacation on Endor he was reassigned to a low ranking spec ops corp, they were so secertive even he didn't know the name of the program. There he found his former squad mate Gimp, who up until then all had thought went AWOL from duty and was a deserter.

Gimp was startled and almost gasped before closing his mouth, "You tried to get info on that! That is like the elite of the elites my friend."

The Ithorian smirked, "I know but I will join them one day. Shhhh we don't want to alert them to our presence." Gimp shook his head in agreement.

The two of them waited in the cargo for an unknown amount of time, Ror had guessed it was in the hours by now. They decided it was time to make their move and they progressed towards the door to make their surprise arrest when the door swung open and a man walked in with an angry look on his face. Ror jumped on the man and drew his knife trying to press it against his throat. This attack failed at the man that walked into the cargo hold countered the attack and put Ror onto the ground with Ror's knife on his throat. “Now, I’m going to ask again. Who the hell are you?” the man asked looking at Ror.

Ror slurred still in shock over the suddenness of the attack and how everything was about to go wrong, "Sp..Specter, Imperial special ops. That’s...that’s Gimp. We were..." Ror flinched involuntary there, much to his dismay at such a cowards action. Suddenly a feeling of warmth appeared on his throat and Ror glanced down and saw blood on his throat, Well at least flinching isn't as bad now.

The man smiled and said, "Do continue"

Ror frowned when he realize he might not live through this next sentence, "We were...wer were sent to arrest you" The man smiled even more.

Gimp stepped forward and drew his blaster pointing it at the back of the man's head, "I'd suggest getting up quietly or there will be a new hole in your head."

The man laughed, "won't that alert my squad and send them running to help me?"

Gimp smiled as well, "You will be dead though so it won't matter now will it?" The man smirked and got up and put his knife away.

Ror took a deep breath and got up as the man did, the man spoke up as he straightened himself out, "Well first things first, if your looking to arrest a traitor your after the wrong people."

Both Ror's and Gimp's face were full of shock as the man spoke, Ror was the first to speak up, "What are you talking about?" he asked.

The man smiled and sat down on a box while he started his tale of their mission thus far. "Soo that brings us to where we are now and the question is what you are you two going to do."

Ror and Gimp were speechless, they had no idea such a sinister plot had been going on and were now facing a major decision. They could either not believe the man and take him out and get the rest of them like they were suppose but on the other hand they could believe them and risk being killed as traitors with them if they failed. Ror thought it over for a second and spoke up, "I don't know what Gimp will do because I do not speak for him, but if you are telling the truth I will fight to help expose the real traitor and clear your name. But I swear on the Emperor's grave that I will kill, not arrest, each and everyone of you if you are lieing to me"

RK gritted his teeth, everything that had happened to them in the past came down to this. If they were ever going to return home, they were going to have to catch Talos, but the shabuir was already out thinking  them. why did I join Wraiths again, oh that's right I missed the VE, guess they really didn't miss me as much as I had missed them. The thought was humorous, but at the same time he found it very comforting; which was very disturbing in it's own special way.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say, this is really getting tedious, we get ahead of them, they get ahead of us, and vice versa. I mean why can't we just stand across from each other separated by a line and have a shoot-out.” RK exclaimed, his irritation was evident.

“That would be to easy, you of all people should know that, RK” Arnaut said, his voice stern; Not really caring in the matter, just giving an answer to shut RK up.

It's true, you used to chase people all over the galaxy to bring justice, and get a little bit of pay, just so that you can prove something, it was never as easy as you had hoped. Yet, all he wanted to do was go home and lay back down in a nice bed, and share stories with those that he once called friend, but now even using the word friend was difficult, since everywhere they turned someone was trying to  kill them.

The ride felt rough as they made their way towards the hangar, every turn threw them on top of each other. The armor that each one of them had acquired clanged together, it was like they kept running into a wall continuously. After about five minutes they finally got to a straight stretch, Arnaut was the first to let out a sigh of relief and fix himself back in the seat. Followed by RK and then Gimp.

“Do you know how to drive this thing?”  Helena blurted out, not even thinking.

“Yes, your alive so far, don't complain, but if any of you think you can do better, your willing to try.” The man's challenge went lifeless as they made another corner.

I bet I could, but I don't want him to stop, sides we're running out of time.

Jenny kept herself in her seat, holding on for dear life, seat belts locked tightly on her chest while keeping her calm, Specter still crept in the back seat. She saw that Kand had made his way to the center of the large amount of traffic and was racing himself to the spaceport while avoiding angry car owners and red and green lights, no sign of Talo's tracks, the whole world flying by like a speed race. Damn bastard, why doesn't he show himself like a man, not a.... Jenny took back her thoughts, ignoring the thoughts of her thoughts and everything, after all Ella had ran from her, ran from her destiny to be killed, ran from death itself.

"Alright, people, I see them! They're just ahead, avoiding traffic it seems, just like us, we'll be right behind them. Jenny, contact Arnaut, we found them!" Kand yelled happily, the smile on his face wider as we approached the mass amount of traffic jam, avoiding the speeders now driving to the side or opposite lane, crashing themselves into the speeders going in the opposite direction. Jenny called up Arnaut on her comlink:

"We found them, Arnaut. Kand is busy driving, so he's let me do the talking."

"Alright, keep close to him, but no killing, I want that son of a gun alive and kept on a leash or something suitable for him. I'll be there in a moment, just have to get through the mess you left our speeder." Arnaut reminded, urgently and slowly, a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"No need to thank me, Arnaut, just remind me next time never go on a planet about to be infected with a massive virus." Kand chuckled at his own joke as another speeder, flying to him like a boomerang almost smashed into the front window as he ducked up with the speeder, flipping over and swinging it back into the last stretch, the head of the boomerang, onto the entrance of the spaceport, with loads of traffic blocking the way of parking and Talos deciding to take it on foot, heading to an empty spot next to the crowded traffic to hike it to the spaceport, a shuttle or something probably waiting for him to get on.

"Arnaut, we're taking it on foot, the traffic sucks out on the mouth of the spaceport, there are speeders just crowding for a parking spot out of here, what's going on? a virus breakout or something?" Kand relayed to Arnaut, finding a place next to Talo's speeder to land.

"No, more like a hike in terrorism as this planet was once "invaded" by us, no doubt, stupid idiots, we're already going out. Here we go, I'm almost at the entrance, where are you, Kand?"

"Sending coordinates now, get here quickly, we're hiking on foot after them, Kand's words." Jenny continued Kand's words as his attention was focused on Talos, straight ahead, just a block away from them, still having the feeling of followers behind his back, but among the crowds, Jenny, Kand and the rest of the team was very hard to recognize, trying to hide themselves in their disguises, Jenny looking very punk rock, not her style.

"Next time, someone send me a good disguise, I'd hate for a concert to break right when we're chasing Talos." Jenny said her thoughts out loud as she kept hands at the ready on her weapons, in case she needed them. I hope Talos won't be getting the end of it, 'cause it has enough blood already.

A scream went up amongst the crowds of people, out in the main area of the spaceport. Running as they were, hangar to hangar, the Wraiths couldn’t tell what was going on, but suddenly civilians were rushing out as fast as they could. They flowed past the Wraiths like water, barely noticing them in desperate flight. The weak or slow were jostled aside and to the ground, where, more often than not, they were trampled to death by the masses. Arnaut was almost knocked off his feet as a rather large trandoshan collided with him. The alien didn’t even look back as it ran on.

Arnaut pushed through, against the crowds. His cloak had gotten lost in the fray, and now his entire suit of armor was exposed. Instead of daunting the masses, they seemed to slow down and cling to him, as if he’d offer them protection. Protection from what? Arnaut shook off two people, and began to move toward the lobby of the spaceport in earnest. There were more screams coming out of there, screams of fear intermingled with louder, screeching cries of pain.

Arnaut was just a few feet from the glass doors when then shattered wide open. The leapt clear over Arnaut’s head, talons flicking and decapitating a few of the fleeing people behind Arnaut. It landed on the back of a large wookie and proceeded him to tear him limb from limb in a visceral mess of gore and fur. Arnaut gagged and nearly threw up inside his helmet, both from the smell and from the sight. People on all sides of the creature tried to push themselves away, but were penned in by the crowds. With an air of casual indifference, the creature lifted it’s head up , extending its body above the crowd and giving Arnaut a good view of it for the first time.

It was one of Albatross’ creations. It’s chitin-encased, insectoid form was capped by a maw of razor sharp, yellow teeth. Four foot long talons hung limply at its side, blood and chunks of wet meat still dripping off onto the mauled body it stood on. Even as Arnaut reached for hisA-280, the creature flicked out with it’s talons again and split a few more civilians, screaming, in half.

Arnaut placed two bolts into its thick hide, sending it reeling backwards, but leaving it otherwise unharmed. Well, unharmed and slightly pissed off.  It roared, it’s purple tongue flicked out from between its teeth, and its yellow, beady eyes flashing menacingly, and proceeded to bound through the crowd, maiming as it went. Arnaut fired twice more and dived aside as the creature leapt. A talon caught his shoulder guard, the kinetic force of it alone spinning Arnaut around in midair and cutting a deep gouge in the plastisteel plate.

Arnaut fired as he fell, his shots spraying the area. A few caught the creature in the underbelly, blasting it over, farther than it had compensated for. It smacked head first into the duracrete and stayed there, organ fluid leaking out from the two smoking holes in its abdomen. Arnaut pushed himself off of his back, gun still held high. Where there was one of those creatures, there were a hundred.

He peered above the tops of the crowds, trying to locate the rest of his squad. Specter was the most visible, his large, ithorian head poking high above the crowds. He was neither close nor in any position to become so, however, mired as he was in the press of people. The rest of his squad was lost in the fray and Arnaut decided that he’d have to take this alone. He stepped into the spaceport.

Glass crunched underfoot, the remains of the doors surrounding him. There were mutilated bodies everywhere, as well as quite a few wounded civilians.  One man, a selonian, crawled blindly on the ground. Where his legs should’ve been, his torso ended in shreds of skin and entrails. Even as Arnaut watched, he collapsed and went still. Maybe coming alone hadn’t been such a great idea.

“Kroh, I need some of your men in the main part of the spaceport.” Nothing. Not surprising, given the noise outside, but still. He tried one more time and still got nothing. He was going to have to do it alone.

He picked his way through the mess, stepping over more bodies than he could count. There was some shuffling to his right, and Arnaut spun, nearly shooting Kand as he ran into the building.

“Woah, woah! Watch where you point that!” Kand said, holding up his hands defensively. Arnaut lowered it, but only slightly.

“There are creatures out and about, you know,” Arnaut said.

“I hadn’t noticed,” Kanderin responded drly, indicating towards the bodies. “We took two down outside, and we heard a third went down a little before that. I’m pretty sure that’s all of them.”

“What do you mean by ‘we’?” Arnaut asked, even as his question was answered for him. RK, Gimp, and Koll came in behind him, followed by three of Kroh’s men, who’d apparently gotten to the station since Arnaut had arrived.

“We have to get moving. Talos wouldn’t have released those creatures so lightly. He needed something to keep us back while he worked on his escape,” Arnaut said, already beginning to walk down the hall.

“So he’s still here?” Koll asked.

“Let’s find out.”

The seven of them pushed on, following the trail of bodies until they finally made it to a small private hangar at the back of the spaceport. Talos’ ship was there, in a state of repair it seemed. The hyperdrive unit was out, on the ground, as well as quite a few other essential parts, and lots of technicians’ tools. No wonder Talos was still here. One of Kroh’s men, a spiky-haired lanky man carrying a fletchette shotgun, ran in first, before Arnaut could stop him.

He gone three steps in when suddenly his chest sprouted a sword. He went down without a sound, and suddenly there was a man on top of him, yanking the sword out. He was roughly six foot, wrapped head-to foot in cloth covered by beige robes, his face hidden behind a cowl. Arnaut went to fire, but his gun was kicked out of his hands before he could react. In the blink of an eye, the five remaining men, and Arnaut, were embroiled in a bloody, hand-to-hand melee with eight of what Arnaut presumed were Talos’ bodyguards. Arnaut whipped out his knives and lashed out, catching one in the arm. He jumped up feined a kick, and darted out of reach as another body guard came in from the side. The man’s sword nearly took off Arnaut’s head. Arnaut responded by ramming his blade through the man’s chest. Even so, the bodyguard landed on his feet, teetering for a second before finally collapsing, dead.

A man knocked out Arnaut’s legs from under him, and another pounced on top of him. Arnaut kicked out, his durasteel boot colliding with the man’s unarmored hip. It shattered with a wincing crack, and dropped the man next to Arnaut. Arnaut chopped at the man’s throat with his arm, and succeeded in crushing the bodyguard’s windpipe.

A sword came in from the left, forcing Arnaut to roll right. It struck again, causing Arnaut to roll again. And then it struck again, the bodyguard’s first and last mistake. Arnaut grabbed him by the arm, dragging him to the ground, and punched him in the face. The blow shattered the man’s nose and jaw, and sent him reeling, blood pouring from his face. A blaster bolt caught him in the head, and he went down.

Arnaut looked up to see Kanderin standing over him, rifle smoking. Kanderin re-aimed and shot the man with the crushed windpipe, who was still writhing on the floor, in the chest. He stopped moving. As Arnaut looked around, he saw that the bodyguards were all dead or dying. Almost all. One, the one RK was hovering over, was unconscious on the ground, breathing shallowly. His chest rose and fell sporadically, and blood leaked from a wound to his head.

“You have a thing about hitting people in the head, don’t you, RK?” Arnaut chuckled, accepting Kanderin’s hand. RK just shrugged.

“What do we do with him?” he asked.

“Watch him. We’ll go get Talos,” Kanderin commanded. Arnaut looked around, noticing that two of Kroh’s men were down amongst the dead. Arnaut looked at Kanderin.

“I’m not so sure we could take on another wave of guards like that,” Arnaut said seriously.

“I don’t think we have to,” Kanderin said, nodding to something behind Arnaut. He turned to see Talos himself striding across the hangar towards them. His bright blue eyes shone out from under his close cropped black hair, and his mouth was a firm line on his face. He kept his back straight, and stared ahead with a sense of calm dignity.

“I presume you’ve come to talk,” he said, almost indifferently. There was just a slight twinge of anger, around the edge of his voice. His eyes flicked to his dead bodyguards, just for a moment, but if he at all sad over their deaths, he didn’t show it. Arnaut raised his gun to Talos’ forehead, but the man’s demeanor remained the same. He was good.

“Yes. Yes we have. Now, if you’ll please, come with us.” Talos nodded very slowly, and began walking down, through the spaceport, and over the bodies as he hadn’t a care in the world. Arnaut shook his head. This wasn’t going to be fun.

“Kroh, you there?” he commed. This time, Kroh responded.

“Yeah. We’d better get out of here. Law enforcement are already showing up on the scene. It’s like a repeat of Ord all over again. Do you have Talos?”

“Yeah, we’re brining him to our ship now. Get your men onto their ships and get ready to blast out of this place.”

* * *

Back on the ship, Talos was restrained and put in the back hold, with no less than two Wraiths with him at all times. Even in captivity, he maintained an air of regal dignity, back straight, eyes straight ahead, boring holes into the wall. He refused his meals with a polite ‘no, thank you’ and answered most of their questions, still without looking at his interrogater. Although, they were all simple ones like ‘What’s your name?’ and ‘What planet did you come from?’. Arnaut knew better than to bring up Albatross so soon in the interrogation. They would get to that. They still had a few days of hyperspace jumping, following a random route set by the computer to deter trackers. They would get to the topic Albatross before long.

The only other person who permanently shared the room with Talos was the bodyguard. His head was bandaged, and he was lying, still unconscious, in the simple med-tube the ship had.

“What’s his name?” Specter had asked Talos one time.

“Ronan,” Talos had replied simply.

OOC:

Ronan, you're introduced. You can wake up and post when you want. You'll probably want to follow that story that you worked out with RK. That sounded pretty good. Maybe throw in some amnesia so you don't revert to bodyguard mode and stab us all

We're jumping randomly in hyperspace for a while, and, at the same time, interrogating Talos. He'll eventually tell us where Albatross is, and we can get to the real hunt. So, just post about milling around on the ship for now while I get the next story moving post sorted out.

Kand...um...PM. So we can discuss...y'know...stuff...

“Huh? I...” The man was disoriented, he seemed lost in another dimension, but yet stuck in this one. Part of RK thought maybe it was the armor he wore, but the fact Arnaut had some more recent armor canceled out the thought.

“and I'm Sergeant RK.”  RK quickly said, realizing his mistake, even if his identity didn't matter.

“How are you feeling.” Arnaut asked.

“ummm, when I can remember what happened I'll let you know.” The man replied; receiving a few small laughs from RK, which were quickly stifled by a quick glance from Arnaut. It wasn't like the man wasn't trying to be humorous, whoever brainwashed him messed him up, bad.

“Just to clear this up your name is ronan correct?”

The man tilted his head and closed his eyes, he appeared to be thinking, of course neither Arnaut or RK knew. Time passed away slowly, and the man still hadn't opened his eyes, but something stirred on the outside of the man and finally he talked. “Yea, I believe so, course I really don't know anything.” His eyes were still closed.

“It's understandable. On another note, I have some business to attend to, RK here will talk to you and if  you don't get a response just knock on the helmet....” Arnaut paused, turning his head towards RK who was grinning underneath his helmet. “...on second thought, just take the helmet off RK.”

RK promptly obeyed, lifting his arms up to the helmet. He pulled it off, revealing light brown shaggy hair and a unshaven beard from not having the chance for proper hygiene, considering their predicament. Even though he probably wouldn't change it, ever since he noticed women were giving him more glances. “Fine, It's not like I actually was going to fall asleep.” RK shifted his eyes from both sides.

“Alright, I best be going.” Arnaut waved and left  the door hissed behind him.

“So where were we?” Asked RK, taking a seat next to the pod.

"Quiet in there!"

Kanderin sighed to himself as he shut the door again, once again encasing him and Talos in the near pitch black room. After leaving the atmosphere and travelling so far from any form of planet, the light they had the interrogation room bathed in had all but vanished. Kanderin would of turned a light on, but he felt it gave the room an intimidating feeling about it. That plus the fact the light didn't work anyway, but he didn't want Talos knowing that.

"Not the....Elite Squad I was expecting" Talos said casually, stroking away some dirt from his cuff.

"They're off duty right now. Be unlucky enough for them to be on duty when you're up to something, and you're in trouble"

"I'll believe that when I see it" Talos smiled.

"And about Albatross"

"I wouldn't know, he hasn't told me much until we last met. What exactly is it he's aiming to achieve?"

"You're joking, right?" Kanderin's eyes opened a little wider, and the pen he was nibbling on he let drop to the table.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took several men to be able to pull Arnaut away from the Sabaac game, and his substantial losing's. Curses threw left and right, and RK was lucky to keep his teeth intact. Once they were safely away from the table, the group decided it would be easier to lift Arnaut above their heads to carry him to Kanderin, rather than risking injury.

A few minutes of struggling later, Arnaut was dropped in front of Kanderin.

"We have a problem" He whispered.

"Damn right we have a problem, stupid bunch of no good cheating p..."

"It's about Talos"

"Oh right" Arnaut's burning eyes suddenly swelled back down again. "What is it?"

"He claims he didn't have a clue what Alb's true intentions were, and that he's willing to help us as much as he can in catching him" Kanderin replied.

"That's great news! What's the problem then?"

"Well, it all seemed too...easy" Kanderin leaned against the wall, not quite sure whether to grimace or smile "I expected it to take a while, but he just opened up in front of me. Sure we can trust him?

Arnaut scratched the back of his head, before tossing some spare Sabaac cards from his back pocket to the far side of the ship.

"I don't think we really have much choice. What did he tell you?"

"Some dealing's on a planet on the very rim of Vast Empire space. Nothing more than an outpost apparently, isn't even named. gave co-ordinates though" Kanderin shrugged again, unsure this was a good idea.

"We might as well bite, what other lead's do we have"

The room felt dark,  regardless of how much light was being poured in. It had been a while since RK had been mad at a squad mate, but there had been a red flag raised when Spec had mentioned the kidnapping being to easy. Maybe it was just RK's hunter instinct, but still he had acted out, he should have known better.

Just relax, it's almost over. He let out a loud sigh and sat down on the nearest object, a table; It wasn't the most comfortable, but it worked for the time being; he sat down on top of it and cupped his face in his hands, letting out a loud sigh as he did. Everything was starting to come together,but something was making him feel uncomfortable. He had only been with wraiths for a while,  but he felt like he had known every single one of them his whole life, which was rare for RK.

Choose your path wisely, because once you've chosen it's hard to look back.The thought rung  true in RK's mind. Many of times he had looked back, wishing for the old days, hoping that maybe everything would just go back to normal; knowing that it never would. Regardless, he couldn't change what was, the past was gone all that was left was the future.

Hiss, The door startled RK out of his trance, making him jump and knock the helmet off the table. He was shocked to see Kand along with Gimp walk into the room, Gimp didn't seem happy, but then again after the events neither was RK.

“Have you calmed down?” asked kand, his left eyebrow raising slightly.

“Yea, just dreaming the day away.” RK replied.

“AH we all tend to do that more lately.”

“I hate to break this up, but what am I doing in here again?” Gimp interrupted, his voice irritated.

“Actually, your in here 'cause regardless of what you think, we are a team, and just because gimp here was sent to kill us doesn't mean he's are enemy, understood?” Kand's voice was firm, making RK feel like a child getting scolded, but he had acted that way, so it was appropriate.

“Yes, Sir” RK tried his best to salute, but he was still a little frustrated, making it seem like he didn't really care.

“At ease..” Kand paused, cleared hi throat then turned to Gimp. “I don't know who sent you, or even if they were trusted members of the Empire, I don't know whether you will be staying with us when you return, but until then your in our hands, so try to get along, understood?”

“Yes, understood, Sir” Gimp didn't even bother to salute, but he at least looked up and nodded.

“Alright, now go back about your business, I have other matters to attend to.” Kand said, waving and then leaving the room with authority.

RK on the other hand just stayed where he was at, gimp on the other hand left. Not even saying good bye. Again RK was alone, his mind drifting back to numerous thoughts, disturbing the peace he hoped he would get.