Fwurg

[Shaedys]

"I find the terms agreeable, as you say we don't exactly have any better alternatives. I say go. It would be good to know what he aims to do."

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana resumed the transmission when the other padawans had given their opinion.

"Thank you for your patience admiral. We discussed your offer and accept it. Both the Union and the Slave Rebellion will be in your debt if you succeed.

We will personally grant you this favor and will come to your aid at a later moment of your choosing.

How do you plan to help us out of this situation? We would like to know how we proceed. Can you explain us what lies ahead?"

[Mercury]

"Excellent." the Admiral nodded. "I cannot just fly off and deliver you to Union space. That'd cost me my head. And I cannot have you 'escaping' either, because that'd inevitably require violence committed by you and a conflict between the Union and the Slave Rebellion as a result." he reasoned.

"So instead, you're all going to be kidnapped by some Hutt operatives." the admiral explained. "We shot down one of their infiltrator vessels before you arrived to prevent them from attempting to kidnap the Empress a few hours before you arrived, hence the somewhat threatening welcome message. So it won't be entirely unlikely. You may have seen the wreckage if you scanned the system where we rendezvoused.

Then once the Hutt have taken you captive and transported you off world, naturally as Jedi you will organise an 'escape' and safely make your way back to the Union. Would this be acceptable to you?

Regardless, I will need you lot to fill in some of the details... like how the Hutt managed to get to you to come along... but I'm sure you're all pretty smart and can think up something.

As for your plan to contact another rebellion leader... I can't exactly go to the bunny to override how a bona fide governor deals with a slaver. He has full authority and autonomy here and I'm not in that line of command."

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana turned towards the other Jedi.
"I guess we could go with something like operatives that sneaked onto our ship and took the Empress hostage. We needed some time to dissolve the situation and free ourselves.
The problem is that it does not explain how we got out of this Slave Rebellion Destroyer. Furthermore how do we get home? In our own ship I guess. We should get some of the operatives from the crashed ship as evidence, if there is anything left of them. The problem with this plan is that it still puts the full blame on the Slave Rebellion. Since they let us be captured by Hutt operatives while they had a Destroyer in the area. Am I missing something? Does any of you have a better explanation?"

[Ariana Danacia]

Since the other Jedi were not responding Ariana turned towards the admiral.

"This plan would mean that the Hutt would have been able to capture us while we were on board your destroyer, this sounds a bit unlikely. I guess they would try to kidnap us in our own ship and we would be capable of regaining control of the ship and return to Union. The chaos the Hutt brought with them gave us an opportunity to leave.

We might need to go to the wreckage to acquire some 'evidence' from our Hutt kidnappers. Are we allowed to take a quick look through the wreckage before we leave?

I hope we can meet again under different circumstances. If you ever need our help ask for me personally. I am Ariana Danacia from the Praetorian Empire."


((OOC: Since the other Jedi are not doing anything I will continue / finish the story line on my own...))

[Shaedys]

"The sincere thanks of Shaedys of the Astai Republic here. "

"I have no further suggestion on the plan. It might be iffy but we might be able to pull it off."

[Mercury]

"The wreckage is in another system, we can't go there now - it would be suspiscious." the admiral explained "But we can make it out as if it was some sort of bounty hunting group - those bounty hunters of theirs have done missions like this in the past, kidnapping or killing key leaders. I'll get a scolding for not keeping proper security on the prisoners, but I'll survive that."

He paused a moment.

"Without further suggestions, I'll leave it in the hands of my operative to improvise. I could only get one on such short notice, but it is a good one. Try not to get them killed. And may Kika'Lekki bless you all."

((OOC: If you have no further idea's before the weekend, I'm moving on to the escape. Please be sure nothing you wanted to do here is left undone as you may not be able to return.))

[Ariana Danacia]

"Thank you Admiral. I have nothing to add. We will hear from you in the future and hope to meet you again under better circumstances. Good bye."

[Darones Rei]

"Hmmm, " Darones said after Ariana had closed the connection and he had considered the plan a bit more, " I believe this plan might work, however there is still a problem. It still places the blame with the Slave Rebellion, nor does it resolve the situation with the Empress and the failed negotiations. As a result of this the Union may decide not to enter into further relations with the Slave Rebellion, and no longer provide assistance.

Besides making our way out we should also try to find a solution which would once again offer a common ground and a good bases for negotiations. It seems the admiral is willing to further a good diplomatic relation, perhaps we could persuade some other officials as well. Could you ask the admiral if it is possible for us to speak to some mid-level staff of the Rebellion's leadership; if we can find out what they want need and want, they might be persuaded to influence their leaders into a more willing mood and provide a new angle for future negotiations."

[Mercury]

"Warning - the structural integrity of the ship has been compromised. Locking down aft storage bay to prevent depressurisation in space. Please stop for repairs at the next space dock." the computer system warned, offering no explanation as to why this was happening in the first place. More relevantly, none of the Jedi sensed anything was amiss.

Suddenly there was a muffled bang as a stun-explosion knocked out the two guards standing by the door to the Empress' quarters. The Empress in turn would see the doors to her quarters forced open and three figures dressed entirely in form fitting black outfits without markings, wearing dark masks that hid their faces made their way into the room, not saying anything but carrying various weapons! And of course they had picked a moment when there were no Jedi present as they were all agreeing on the best course of action!

[Empress Saret Neferti]

True to her word, the empress had one of her handmaidens get her personal equipment from her storage containers. This was an easy task. Unfortunately Cauthā, one of her handmaidens, had already returned to her post outside the door after bringing the empress her military equipment.

Since Veolian clothing consisted of only a single layer donning armour consisted of two steps: getting naked, and donning the armour. At the moment she heard a muffled explosion outside, the empress was wearing a few parts of her armour: she wore a piece of armour covering her from the hips down to her knees, her side arms were already strapped to her thighs. A breastplate covered her shoulders, breasts and upper arms but left her belly unprotected. On her back she carried a vibroblade. The whole armour was done in red, and the house logo of House Saret was easily visible where normal soldiers carried rank markings.

The rest of the armour pieces were carefully arranged on her bed, with the Shanora, the twi'lek girl, just picking up the flexible backplate that connects the breastplate to the hip piece. Shandryss, the human slave, stood in front of the empress and just finished securing her mistress' breastplate.

As the black-clad assassins rushed into her room, the empress forcefully pushed the human slave away from her. "Shanora, Shandryss hide!", she shouted while drawing her vibroblade and one of her blasters. She took a shot at the first figure and followed up by rushing him. Even though she did not have the formal training of her handmaidens, she was determined to take down these assassins before they could harm her or her slaves!


In the cockpit, the two handmaidens suddenly drew their blasters. One of them called out "The empress is under attack!" as they rushed into the ship, toward the empress' quarters.


((OOC: I'd like to point out that, contrary to what some of the players have told me they think if it, I am not an ST in this mission. My characters are all PCs, and I play this mission as a player. I doubt it, but if any of the players think this is somehow unfair, I will hand of my characters to the ST to play for the duration of this mission.))

[Ariana Danacia]

When the handmaidens drew their blasters Ariana knew their was something wrong. She immediately rushed to the quarters of the Empress. Instead of walking she was flying and jumping through the ship. She bounced of the walls to maintain her momentum in the sharp corners. With her force speed she easily flew passed the handmaidens.

((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 3 Fitness + 1 Force Speed -- Moving towards the quarters of the Empress.))

[Darones Rei]

After hearing the alarm triggered by the ships internal systems, Darones concluded that this was either a malfunction or something was amiss. As the systems had been stable the entire flight and he had seen no indications of any errors in the systems, this must have been an outside influence, which was confirmed a moment later when the Handmaidens of the Empress grabbed their sidearms and rushed towards her quarters.

He saw Ariana bouncing up and off the walls of the ship as she rushed towards the quarters of the Empress and Darones considered his options for moment and the decided to follow her. As he was much smaller and more flexible he was considerably faster then Ariana was, using his skill in acrobatics and athletics, in which he let the force guide him, to keep his speed while more around the tight corners.

((Check: 13 = 4 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 1 Acrobatics + 1 Athletics + 1 Force Speed + 2 Force Jump -- moving towards the quarters of the Empress))

[Shaedys]

Shaedys heard the alarms and instinctively turned around and rushed out the door towards the empress, seeing the other two jedi doing the same thing he assessed that he could not be as helpful in the cockpit and continued on rushing. Focusing the force into his speed and then jumping off of walls in the corners to keep his momentum going.

((Check: 13 = 5 Force Level + 5 Fitness + 1 Athletics + 1 Force Jump + 1 Force Speed -- Moving fast towards the Empress's quarters.))

[Mercury]

The blaster shots were expertly dodged by the three invaders, who accepted no buts accept the butts of their rifles on the bodies of the slaves, the largest one slamming his weapon so hard into Shandryss stumach the only further protest she was able to produce was "UMHPF!"

Shanora did not fare much better as the smallest operative grabbed her weapon and landed a swift kick in the head, followed upon by an uppercut with the back of the rifle, which knocked the woman clean out.

The Empress meanwhile did not surrender just like that and her vibroblade managed to slash the larger one as he took out Shandryss, but it was no more than a flesh wound and moments later the empress found herself disarmed and unceremoniously lodged over the shoulder of the medium operative, who moved to carry her off out of the room.

Fortunately the escape plan was rudely interrupted by Darones and Shaedys arriving at the scene after a lightning rush through the ship. Ariana was following close behind, but she lagged after them, and behind her the other bodyguards came rushing in.

The Jedi felt stunned a moment and a sense of vertigo or car-sickness overcame them upon seeing the three. These individuals, clearly there, held no presence in the Force whatsoever as if they were not even there which gave a strange and unpleasant cognitive dissonance.

Seeing the Jedi, the largest operative drew a knife, which seemed like an odd manoeuvre, slicing on his shoulder to cut open the form fitting black garment and pull open a flap to reveal a light blue shoulder with an inverted omega tattoo in white and the letters 'R.O.C.' underneath.

Thinking this enough identification, he pushed the cut back closed - even before he had pulled it open the material had already began knitting itself together again and within moments the outfit closed up again. With that done and without another word, the three operatives continued to move past the Jedi towards the exit ramp of the ship.

[Empress Saret Neferti]

The empress, not used to unceremoniously being thrown over someone's shoulder, tried to kick and punch her captor. Unfortunately, her small frame made this a very ineffective manoeuvre. A small part of her brain was glad that the whole situation had regained some clarity -- somehow operatives kidnapping her was preferable over the complete ambiguity of the previous situation.

The two handmaidens, easily being overtaken by the Jedi arrived at the scene last.

((OOC: I wanted to post after the others did something, but since nobody cared to post something after almost a week I just went ahead and posted. I will declared the action of the handmaidens in a post after the Jedi, as they entered the scene last.))

[Shaedys]

Shaedys saw the operatives walking out of the room, one having cut himself and rapidly regenerating this. This was clearly the mark of some kind of weird species or droid. They did not seem to be apart of the force, not being living these appeared to be advanced droids of some kind. This is irrelevant, as the empress was being dragged off, and the mission is to protect the empress and so he shook it off.

Pulling out both of his lightsabers, Shaedys moved to block the path to the exit from the three operatives and ceremoniously said "Do not harm the empress. Put her down and then lay down your weapons." Not expecting this to be very effective he expected the other two jedi to join him in a surrounding manoeuvre. Facing them he spread his feet slightly and prepared for combat. If they would comply though he might not attack.

((Combat, round 0: Ataru + Dual wield with regular blade, short blade(two regular handles)))

[Ariana Danacia]

After reaching the scene Ariana quickly activated both her light sabers. Ariana moved behind the individual that is carrying the Empress and put her regular blade close to his neck.
"This is far enough. Identify yourself."

((Combat, round 0: Ataru + Dual wield with regular blade, short blade(two short handles)))

[Darones Rei]

As Sheadys took up a position in front of the group carrying the Empress and told the operatives to lay down their weapons, Darones retained his momentum and speed to complete a flanking manoeuvre while activating one of his lightsabers and taking up a position behind the group, blocking their retreat.

((Combat, round 0: Shii-Cho + One-handed with short blade (curved hilt))))

((Check: 13 = 4 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 1 Acrobatics + 1 Athletics + 2 Force Jump + 1 Force Speed -- retaining momentum and speed to rush passed the group and reach a flanking position))

[Empress Saret Neferti]

The two handmaidens, arriving at the scene last, saw the Jedi engaging in combat. Already having grabbed their blasters, they quickly took up a position behind Shaedys to better block the exit of the kidnappers, and took aim at the operative carrying the empress.

((Combat, round 0: Basic blaster combat + blaster))

((OOC: I have no combat statistics for the Handmaidens. They are intended as 2-circle operatives, as they receive years of intensive training.

As we have no defined combat styles for 2-circle operatives, I surmise that their Unarmed combat statistics are Attack: 1 / 1 / 1 - Defence: 1 / 1 / 1 - due to the Force Sensitive racial of Hemet Veolians, of course this will be modified by the attack limitations of their current weapon (blaster = , vibroblade = , unarmed = + )

I leave it to the ST to determine their impact on the combat.))

((OOC: EDIT: Removed sentence with attack, as this isn't a round in which you can attack...))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Clarification: the man did not cut himself and regenerate, he cut open his clothing which grew back closed thanks to being made of self-repairing meta materials. He's not a zerg, he's someone with a good tailor))

As the Jedi raised their lightsabers, the figures in black raised their rifles at the Jedi, not seeming to be intimidated by the laserswords.

"Don't be stupid, Jedi." the voice was deformed, not because the warrior who had shown his tattoo was some sort of demon but because his mask held a voice modulator which made the voice change.

"Get out of the way, grab those knocked out figures and follow us."

((OOC: Clarification: they readied weapons, which is their combat round 0 action. You can attack if you want or not if you don't.))

[Ariana Danacia]

"We warned you."

Ariana lashed out with her regular blade aiming for the rifle that the figure carrying the Empress was holding. Trying to destroy his weapon instead of killing him.

((Combat, round 1: Taking offensive Advantage Action:((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 3 Fitness + 1 Force Speed -- Maintaining a flanking position together with Shaedys.))

Attack: 7 / 5 / 7 - Ataru+regular + short (short handles)
Defence: 5 / 5 / 7 - Ataru+regular + short (short handles)

• Attack penalty first round: -2 attack

))

((OOC: How does he aim a rifle when carrying the Empress? Does he put her down or does he handle the empress with 1 arm and his weapon with the other?))

[Mercury]

((OOC: He is holding her with one arm, the rifle in the other.))

[Shaedys]

Shaedys said "That is in no way putting down the empress." Reaffirming his earlier commands.

Shaedys noticed Ariana moving in, so he would now do the same. Noting that these warriors did not seem scared of the jedi and had yet to try and kill anyone. He moved for the left most assailant, going for the blaster of the assailant and only trying to render the weapon useless. He had already been fooled quite enough today and did not want to walk into another trap yet again.

((Combat, round 1: Attack: 7 / 7 / 6 - Ataru + Dual wield with regular blade, short blade(two regular handles)
Defence: 7 / 7 / 6 - Ataru + Dual wield with regular blade, short blade(two regular handles)

• Attack penalty first round: -2 attack

))

[Darones Rei]

As both Ariana and Shaedys had decided to fight the operatives to try and free the empress, Darones followed suit. Due to his size and style of choice however, he wasn't as powerful as both Shaedys and Ariana were but he fast and agile, so instead of going at an opponent directly Darones decided feint uncertainty to trick him into a false sense of superiority and lure him to an attack, after which Darones could easily retaliate striking at his weapon, aiming to disable it.

((Check: 9 = 4 Force Level + 5 Intuition -- to feint uncertainty and lack of resolve to trick his opponent into making the first move gaining an offensive advantage; Darones' size and appearance, being only a young boy, could give an additional bonus (not included)))

((Combat, round 1: Attack: 2 / 5 / 3 - Soresu + short blade (curved handle)
Defence: 7 / 9 / 11 - Soresu + short blade (curved handle)
Attack penalty first round: -2 attack))