The Shadow's Gambit

The Shadow's Gambit

Astrographical Information

Region: Varies (Travels to major destinations throughout the Galaxy)

Sector: --

System:--

Orbital Position: --

Moons:--

Grid Coordinates: R-14

Physical Information

Class: Luxury "Cruise Ship" (Custom built Vindicator-class)

Atmosphere: Type 1 Breathable Oxygen Mix

Primary Terrain: Indoor Luxury, Cityscape in domes

Points of Interest: The Trevelyn Hotel, Seventh Moon Casino, Open Air Bazaar

Societal Information

Indigenous Species: None

Immigrated Species: Many

Primary Language(s): Galactic Basic

Faction Affiliation: Neutral/Sith

Defense Rating: 1. ( armed with only eight light turbolasers, arranged in pairs along the central spine of the ship, and two light point defense ion cannons located on the command structure)

JediRP Canon History: Captained by Jacob Kira, Built as a secret income source for the Sith, the Shadow's Gambit was intended to rival and compete with the Golden Link Casino and in some respects, outshine it. It brought in money to the Sith while providing a one of a kind luxury experience to its guests, and continued to serve that purpose long after it's creator and true master died. It also houses a fully independent and self sufficient hidden Sith bunker and base of operations in the nose of the ship, which can be disconnected from the rest of the ship, a fail-safe device installed in secret by Shadowfett. It was once the target of the infamous Blood Gem Pirates, but their scheme ultimately failed and ran them afoul of the Sith Master Darth Quietus.

Old description in spoiler:

((Summary compiled by Raynuk Montar. Thank you!))

It had been four weeks since Darth Quietus took the Shadow's Gambit out of its place of construction over Kuat. Those four weeks had been spent traveling to, or orbiting three different planets; Talus, Gromas and Kamino. Each stop had provided a chance for the ship to be properly crewed, and to further advertise the grandest casino ship of its kind. One week a piece at each location, taking on supplies and crew members and sparking like a golden gem in the sky over the planets. Not even the perpetual rain of Kamino could fully block the Shadow's Gambit from being seen in orbit if someone was standing on the planet. Every move thus far had been purposeful and calculated; and every moment had been planned by the Sith Master Darth Quietus in secret.

Captain Jacob Kira however, was not a Sith Master. He did not possess a grand plan for the ship, as his goals were perfectly simple. He was going to be the Captain of the Shadow's Gambit on its maiden voyage across the stars. it was a tremendous amount of pressure, and carried with it a tremendous amount of privilege. It had been Quietus himself who had picked Captain Kira, and that alone brought a serious amount of pride to Jacob. While Quietus had commanded from the shadows, Kira was to become the face of the ship's operations. For now, Quietus would remain aboard the ship to oversee the maiden voyage, but it would be Captain Kira who would be in command and trusted with running the ship; at least, unless Quietus said so. Unfortunately, that also meant that if anything went wrong in the eyes of the Sith, it would be Kira who would be the only one to face judgement. Such was the high price to be paid for being the only one who truly knew that the Sith, and Quietus in particular, were the secret backers of the Shadow's Gambit.

But now the time of crewing and readying the ship for its first official trip was over, and Captain Kira was quite nervous. Standing forward of the crew pits, filled with bridge crew going about their duties, the man was staring out the front viewport as the stars and planets streaked by. They, along with the thousands of other ship crew and staff, were streaking through hyperspace towards Coruscant, where they would pick up the first batch of eager passengers. Other than the handful of crew that either disappeared or turned up dead, the ship was fully staffed and prepared to set the gold standard for casino liner cruises. Captain Kira would see to it that this upcoming trip went smoothly; he would rather work his tail off to ensure a smooth trip than risk slacking off and facing the possible wrath of Quietus. History never favored Imperial officers who failed or otherwise disappointed Sith.

The Captain however, had more pressing matters to attend to than worrying about Quietus. The sound of boots on the command walkway told Captain Kira that Major Torres was coming up to hand him yet another report in preparation for the voyage. He did not turn to greet the young woman, instead waiting until he caught the glimpse of her dark crimson hair in his peripheral vision to glance at her. The look on her face did little to ease the Captain's already growing amount of concern and nervous feelings; in fact it caused his stomach to twist in a knot even more. Torres was not, from the brief time she had served as Captain Kira's executive officer, one to show her concerns on her face, but this time it was clear. Whatever little quip Kira had come up with to greet her with was gone, and instead he merely held his hand out for the datapad she was carrying.

The news, as it turned out, was perfect in its justification of the Major's expression. On the one hand, the maiden voyage had drawn more interest than it was capable of satisfying. In other words, the ship was fully booked for the first trip, and from the latest list that Kira had seen, most of the patrons were of the most elite socioeconomic circles. And every single one of them had put in the same request, a sign of their opulence and self-serving greed. They had all requested that they be able to board the ship individually, from their own personal ships, and knowing how wealthy these people were, the ships would not be small by any means. As Kira continued to read the report, he finally came to the conclusion that his XO had made, and couldnt help but agree.

There was absolutely no way that the Shadow's Gambit could accommodate all of the ships. And there was no way that Captain Kira would be the one to decide who would get to have their ship, and who wouldnt. Nor was he the kind of man to put such a burden on someone else. In his mind, there was only one solution. He handed the datapad back to Major Torres, and looked her dead in the eyes.

"Inform them all that the answer is no. Its just not feasible. They will have to make due with the public transports."

Meanwhile...

As the kick progressed and Karys lashed out with the kick, Quietus had reacted. He did indeed fall to one knee as intended, however instead of it being a reaction to the impact meant to buckle his knee, it appeared that Quietus had removed the opportunity and took command of it. With his now lower stance, his forearm was poised to meet the shin and foot of the massassi. But instead of connecting with it as his knee would have, Quietus' arm was angled lower than the kick. At the fateful moment of impact, Quietus brought his arm up, and hooked under Karys' ankle, deflecting the blow upward and away. The result was that Karys' leg was brought higher up, out of a flexibility range that even the Massassi could achieve thus tipping him over which only served to anger Karys as he slammed his fist into the ground in frustration before getting up again.

And then he heard the words and saw Quietus remove his robe.

"I certainly hope you have more to show me apprentice..."

That single sentence and what appeared it's condescending tone set Karys into overdrive. His fury and rage grew.

Both knew at that moment that playtime was over, and that now was when weapons would join the fray. Recovering Karys made his next move, removing the sword ''Adas Fury' he ran towards his master, becoming a whirlwind of death as again he fed off his masters emotions as he had been told and was using the sustenance derived directly from the dark side of the Force, in part of his natural symbiotic relationship with it, a feeling which came naturally as he fed upon it, and empowered it in turn. A symbiosis. With that each blow that came was as the lightning before the thunder as he swept from all angles aiming to obliterate the man. Despite his large bulking size, the massassi was rather agile. He was acutely aware of his master's own weaponry and was cautious of the fact when he made his approach. Up until this moment he had been holding back. This was the moment when he would no longer do so, and thus as he attacked. Just mere seconds before impact he unleashed from his lanvarok three razor sharp discs directly at Quietus face. He knew of course they would be easily deflected by a sith master such as he but that was merely all part of his plan, his ruse.

All played a part in a larger scheme of the battle. They were the distraction for behind the discs came the massassi and a whirlwind of destruction when he sliced left to right with several blows in a swathe that would easily bisect a normal man as he went for the jugular and rammed his foot straight at Quietus groin in a carefully orchestrated move. Even if he missed initially, he angled himself so as to should it fail he could at least deflect an attack and counter with a roundhouse to the ribs while his sword would follow through to hopefully catch his midsection. He calculated the range and possible outcomes. And then he recalled a phrase...'all was fair in war' for war held no pity or remorse for the weak and as such he would go to any means to win. He was aiming to keep the battle enclosed and close as to make better use of his martial skills where possible. Making sure for every attack there was a opportunity for a possible counter. War was his art and he was creating a symphony orchestrator. To a casual observer it be a true spectacle to see as almost as two creatures of the dark battled for dominance over the other. Today Quietus was Karys prey and he would prove he had what it took to be one with the darkside.

When Eris woke from her nap in the penthouse of the Trevelyn, she put her plan into action. Gathering up her few belongings, she packed them all into a carry-bag and slung it across her chest. Motioning for Roe'gall to follow her, she headed back to where she had last seen Quietus and Karys, knowing that they would most likely still be at it. She wasn't wrong. As she approached, she saw Quietus, now stripped of his robe and in his full armored glory, with the massassi trying his best to land a hit on him. In the Force, the massassi had rage, but it was still raw and undirected. He didn't understand yet how to fully use it for his benefit. That is as it should be, she thought.

She placed herself away from the battle, behind Karys' back so that Quietus would be able to see her without her getting involved. I'm leaving, she spoke to her former master through the Force, knowing that a Sith Master of his control would not be distracted from his fight by her words. There are some things I need to take care of on Raxus Prime. It is time I went back and faced my past. Otherwise I will never move forward into the future. It was difficult to hide what was going on in one's mind when one spoke through the Force, and she was sure Quietus would be able to sense her frame of mind. I don't know what is happening to me, but I feel that my old home might hold some answers. She didn't want to leave him; she never wanted to leave him. But at the same time, part of her was deeply ashamed of her lack of control, and she couldn't bear him seeing her like that. After all, what reason would he then have to stay with her? He was a Sith, and Sith by nature despise weakness. And that was what she felt was going on in her. There was a streak of treacherous weakness that was surfacing, and she was determined to rid herself of it before she could face Quietus again. I will return, rishdara. Force willing sooner rather than later.

Then she turned her face from him and headed into the ship. If she was honest with herself, she would miss him. She already missed him. It had been several weeks since she had felt his body against hers, and she missed the intimacy they had shared. But she was determined to be better, to prove herself worthy of him. It didn't take her long to make her way to the hanger where the Shadow's Shine was docked. The hanger was empty save for her ship, and she quickly boarded. Roe'gall headed to his normal spot in the cargo area, and she made her way to the cockpit.

A few minutes later, the ship was warmed up, and she maneuvered her carefully out of the hanger. Once more she reached out and brushed Quietus' mind with the Force, then hit the lever and disappeared into hyperspace.

Just how Karys would respond to being upended and then taunted by Quietus was as important in terms of training as seeing what the Massassi could do in a fight. In some ways, it was more important to someone like Quietus, who knew the limitations of a body that was built for chaos when it is controlled by an unfocused and undisciplined mind; Quietus himself had been a prime example of that in his younger days as a Sith. The words Quietus spoke to Karys clearly hit their mark, for he instantly sensed the floodgates of rage and anger washing over the Massassi. It did not take long for Karys to lash out again at Quietus.

In one fairly fluid motion, the sword was drawn and Karys was rushing full tilt at Quietus, closing the distance between them in a flash. Clearly the apprentice had taken their earlier conversations to heart, as the moves and speed of the Massassi were dripping of infusion by emotion. The strikes from the sword came fast and rather wild; what they lacked in aim and precision, they more than made up for in weight and ferocity. Quietus couldnt help but begin to be impressed by his apprentice, but was far from respecting the Massassi as an equal. As the cortosis blade continued to strike, Quietus moved fluidly to block, parry and in rare occasions riposte the blows. The difference however, was in the fact that Quietus did not draw any of his own weapons; at least not yet. Each blow, each strike from the cortosis blade was met by the armored bracers of Quietus, one of which was wrapped with the cortosis plated durasteel chain of Navemiba. While Karys lashed out with a single weapon, not drawing a weapon of his own allowed Quietus' movements of defense to be more natural. Great warriors often speak of their weapons being an extension of their own bodies, and in this case Quietus tactic of using his bracers literally meant that his 'weapons' were his own protected wrists. There was substantially less movement required on Quietus part in having two weapons to choose from; never was he caught crossing one arm over his body when the other arm would do.

There were occasions however, in which the ferocity and angle of Karys' strikes forced Quietus to use both of his armored bracers to impact with the single blade. It was during one of these strikes that Karys actually scored his first significant hit to Quietus. As the blows continued to come up blocked or parried, Quietus began to push back against the collisions, on several occasions literally pushing Karys back and creating separation between the two combatants. One of those separations gave the Massassi the chance to throw his razor sharp disks at Quietus, a move that differentiated the attack from his earlier attempts. It seemed that his apprentice was beginning to actually think instead of blindly lashing out. Two of the disks were, of course, blocked by Quietus' non-chain covered bracer, each of them catching and sticking into his armor slightly. The Sith Master barely had a nanosecond to consider the image of the disks sticking out of his arm and wonder how deep they were before Karys was upon him again, aiming to turn his master into two very large pieces. It was this impending sword attack that pushed Quietus ever so slightly past his reaction time to catch the third disk, causing it to whiz by his bracer towards the chiseled face of death. Quietus did manage to avoid most of the potential injury, but was however forced to add a long cut to the side of his face, from cheek to his neck. The two disks in his bracer forced Quietus to continue on with just the single bracer in those immediate heartbeats until he could properly discern what affect the disks would have.

The Massassi however, was continuing to make mistakes that Quietus had no issue exploiting, especially knowing that Karys had drawn blood so soon into their spar. With one wrist flashing to and fro to catch the blade, Quietus other arm was free to do anything but catch a blade in the same manner. And so when the Massassi foolishly attempted to render Quietus either sterile or extremely sore, the Sith Master took exception to such a large boot coming anywhere near his personal treasures. With his free hand Quietus caught the boot of the Massassi with a clenched gauntlet plated fist, essentially punching the kick away a good half meter from its target. The punch brought with it a fair amount of crushing force to the upper ankle, enough that Karys would likely feel a fair amount of discomfort when he put weight on it for the remainder of the fight, and possibly longer.

Given Kary's first attempt at a kick, Quietus was much less surprised when the Massassi turned the failed boot into an attempted roundhouse kick. To a point, and even more so to Quietus, the Massassi was beginning to become predictable. And for a man with as much knowledge as Quietus, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. The addition of the sword following the kick was an example of predictability becoming a bad thing. By being predictable, QUietus knew it was possible to lure your opponent into a false sense of security, and it is in that moment that you change your tactic, when they expect one action but get something completely different. This was, in essence what Karys was attempting to do. The problem was that by bringing the sword through the kick as well, it once again meant Quietus' arms were free. And up until this point, Quietus had become predictable himself.

In reaction to this change of tactics, Quietus reacted in kind; changing his own patterns. Previously he had not crossed arms to the other side of the body, but with the impending sword slash and his currently less than effective bracer, he did just that. The disk adorned bracer was brought back up from the punch to parry the kick, catching Karys in the shins with his own razor sharp disks, which Quietus doubted felt very good to the Massassi's shins. The added injury to the other leg of the Massassi and its ability to hold weight seemed to diminish the kick as well. His other hand followed close after the first, aimed to riposte the sword following so close behind. Quietus caught the blade just in time on the topside of his bracer, with his arm aimed down so that the blade's momentum would actually cause it to slide further up Quietus' arm. At the moment of impact though, Quietus wrist twisted in the bracer, bringing his palm upwards and grabbing Karys' wrist before Quietus pulled back with all his physical strength.

The result was that Quietus hand ripped down Karys wrist and hand, gaining a grip on the lower handle of the sword. It was a precision move aimed at pulling away from the Massassi and literally stripping the cortosis sword out of Karys' hand in one fluidic motion. Quietus used the effective momentum to spin backwards away from Karys, bringing the sword with him. Once stopped and facing his apprentice again, Quietus grinned devilishly and glanced at the sword and spoke through heavy breaths.

"Impressive... Most impressive..."

As his eyes darted back up to meet the hatred filled gaze of the Massassi, Quietus unceremoniously spiked the cortosis sword, implanting it into the decorative tiles of the plaza walkway, causing it to wobble back and forth a bit.

"But you are not a Sith yet..."

Only in the pause of the action did the rest of the world surrounding Quietus and his apprentice catch up to him. For all intents and purposes he had tuned out everything else, and now it was all rushing back towards him. Only then did he gain flashes of movement behind Karys, like pictures taken during their exchange. He could see vividly now, Darth Eris finding a place behind the Massassi where Quietus would see her, and the look of pain, frustration and sadness on her face. She had been but a ghost of a presence to him since their rendezvous, and now he saw her face and heard her words in his mind like an echo that came from memory.

I'm leaving, there are some things I need to take care of on Raxus Prime. It is time I went back and faced my past. Otherwise I will never move forward into the future. I don't know what is happening to me, but I feel that my old home might hold some answers. I will return, rishdara. Force willing sooner rather than later.

He saw the new memories of her turning and moving away, and felt now that her presence was gone. And he had missed the time to wish her well on her spiritual journey. There was a part of the almighty Sith Master that wished he could afford to go with her to help her. But Quietus knew it was something she needed to do alone. He had gone through a similar journey of meaning and purpose years ago, when he himself was a Sith Lord, for much the same reasons as he knew Eris was now leaving; a feeling of stagnation and lack of direction. His own journey had taken him backwards through his life, and in the end he found the clarity he was looking for. But for Eris, QUietus also got the sense that his presence was part of the reason she was leaving on this journey. His earlier suspicions that she was hiding something from him had grown into little less than assurances on the matter. But what it was he still had never found out.

Perhaps such information would be the reward for his allowing her to leave like this.

May the Force be with you my dear...

=========================================================================================

Meanwhile, perfectly on schedule, the Shadow's Gambit emerged from hyperspace over Coruscant, the virtual center of the galaxy, and began settling itself to orbit the planet and take on the passengers. Captain Kira turned from the viewport to watch his bridge crew begin contacting the various transport stations, space traffic control, and customs officials in order to ensure that the first passengers of the Shadow's Fury would not run into any issues.

Over the past few hours, Captain Kira had to himself speak to a handful of the more wealthy and thus, in his opinion, stubborn passengers in order to put his foot down regarding the latest changes that had to be made to the arrival process. None of them were happy to hear that they were going to have to come aboard on public transports with the "nerf herders" as one patron had put it, despite the fact that it was only the wealthy and privileged that had even been able to afford and secure a cabin aboard the ship for its maiden voyage.

I might be able to get used to putting snobs in their place, the Captain thought with a small grin as he watched his crew prepare for what was bound to be a busy few days.

Livea Jurgan, a confident yet cheerful redhead, found herself sitting quietly beside several other prospective employees of the new casino liner, taking public transport up from the surface of Coruscant. She carried just a small satchel with a few changes of clothes and some datapads, unlike the rich and famous who were in the process of flooding the Shadow's Gambit's docking bays with mountains of traveling cases. Once the shuttle settled into place, she rose and strode down the ramp, trying to project a controlled calm.

The prospective employees were met by a crew member, who pulled them away from the hubbub of the hanger and into a quieter office. There they were told to wait until a hiring agent could meet them. "It won't be long," the crew member assured them. "There are many people looking to work on such a prestigious luxury liner."

Livea nodded and settled into a chair. She was the picture of a working woman, her hair neatly tucked into a bun, dressed in a classic yet feminine business suit, her manner quiet yet professional. She was determined to get this job, and had the confidence that came with knowing she was qualified.

((Way to just bypass getting off the planet ))

"Captain, there's another handful of wannabe-employees that came in with that last transport it seems..."

Jacob Kira didnt even look up, his hand covering his face as he rubbed his forehead. The man had developed a headache from all these unexpected glitches and snags that the crew was running into now that the Shadow's Gambit was taking on passengers. He was fully prepared for the guests to be annoying and have demands the second they got onto the ship, but even expecting it, he had vastly underestimated it. All Captain Kira could do was to constantly remind himself that this was why they were called "shakedown" cruises and not "everything works perfectly the first time" cruises. Finally he looked up, his eyes taking an extra second to focus on the communications chief that had spoken.

"Fine, fine, send Lieutenant Stevens to talk to them... You already isolated them right?"

As the chief nodded an affirmative, Captain Kira becan to wonder. Why in the blazes people were boarding the ship from the surface, expecting their presence to influence them getting a job on the ship. The acquisition of crew was precisely the reason that the ship had delayed itself for weeks over Kamino, Talus and Gromas; the ship had come to Coruscant for passengers, not more crew. Either way, job applications were far down the list of things that the Captain himself needed to worry about.

"How many transports have we taken in so far?"

===============================================================================

Down on the hanger deck level, Lt Stevens was not in all that much of a good mood either. This was the fourth time today that he had been pulled away from his duties to address the people who had come aboard in hopes of a job.Not that he minded too much considering how hectic his duties were at the moment, and a small part of him knew that he was being pulled because the Captain trusted his ability to deliver the news in a gentle way, while remaining firm on his position. And so, he forced himself to pause and take a deep breath before entering the small office to come face to face with the group.

Walking in, the Lieutenant waved and introduced himself. There were eight in this group, a venerable melting pot of Coruscant if he had ever seen one. They were all seated in a line of chairs against the wall, and in the first three seconds of him walking in, only four of the 'candidates' had even bothered to look up; clearly the other four didnt really want a job. Stevens sighed slightly once more, and walked towards them. He could at least be cordial with them, as it had helped in the past to make the candidates realize the truth. So, one by one he introduced himself to each of them, shook their hands, asked them what positions they were seeking to fill, and collected their resumes to glance over briefly before moving on to the next one in line.

Once he had collected all of the pertinent data, Lt Stevens turned and sat on the edge of a nearby desk facing the group.

"Alrighty, well its a pleasure to meet you all, and I would like to express our thanks for your interest in working for us here on this grand casino liner. However, I have to inform you all that we have no open positions at this time. Given that this is out maiden voyage, we arrived here at Coruscant with a full crew already in place."

The chorus of objections and begging began immediately, but it was largely the same things he had heard from every other group. Pleas about family, hard times, how dedicated they were, how hard they would work, how proud they would make the Lieutenant if they only had a chance... It was all the things that he had heard before. With a sweep of his hand, he cut them all off, raising his voice slightly to catch their attention as he stood.

"Look, I am sorry, but theres no exceptions. We are not hiring anyone else at this time. I thank you again for your interest, but the answer is no. Now, if you will all follow me, we will get you all back to the docking bay and back down to Coruscant, free of charge."

Walking to the door and opening it, he attempted to usher the candidates out of the office. Waiting just outside the door was a small security detail, prepared for any trouble that desperate workers might attempt. So far today they already had two rejected workers attempt to make a mad dash to the turbolifts to get into the rest of the ship. As each rejected candidate exited, Lieutenant Stevens nodded and thanked each of them by name. Given her attire, Stevens wasnt the least been surprised that the redhead was clearly attempting to be the last one out of the room; an attempt to curry favor with the Lieutenant one on one he guessed.

((Oh. Sorry 'bout that.))

The lieutenant's words were disappointing, but Livea didn't say anything when the chorus of pleas broke out. Well, we tried to get here fast enough...bloody Sith in such a hurry, she thought. As the group was ushered out of the door, she maneuvered to be the last to leave.

The look in the lieutenant's eye told her he had been expecting something like this. He probably saw it all the time. Nevertheless, she was determined to try. "Lieutenant, forgive me, but are you absolutely sure there are no more positions available? You have not looked at my resume." She held it out for him to take. "With humility, I believe you will find that I would be a very valuable asset to your crew." She paused. "Of course, I could go to the Golden Link Casino, but I'm sure your security systems are more state-of-the-art than theirs."

Her words were utterly true. There were few in the galaxy with her skill at computer security, and her credentials spelled it all out, if he bothered to look. She could honestly get almost any job in the galaxy that she wanted. Unless of course they were deliberately shunning her. If that was the case here, then she would have to implement a different strategy.

The moment the redhead approached, prepared to make her appeal, Stevens sighed silently to himself. She was at least nicer to look at than some of the other desperate rejects who had attempted to curry favor with him so far today, and given the day he was having, the Lieutenant was glad to have at least something to mark as positive. As she approached and began to speak, Stevens crossed his arms, and waited to see which strategy she would attempt to use. It didnt take long for Stevens to realize that she wasnt nearly as dumb as everyone else had been, but was taking a long shot.

"You're right. I didnt look at your resume, or anyone else's resumes. Why? Because i'm just here to collect them, hand them off to someone else, and send you all on your way. Im just a section chief sent here to be the face man because apparently, I'm 'personable'. I have no say in who gets hired, that's up to the Captain and the proprietor of this ship. I just do my job, and today, that job is apparently to be the one to shoo away all the dumb nerf-herders who missed our recruitment stops."

He paused then and leaned back against the wall.

"You wanna go work for the Golden Link? No skin off my back. So look..." Stevens said before glancing down at the resume in his hand, "Livea... strange name... Look Livea, you're barking up the wrong tree."

He pushed off the wall and began to walk out of the office before he stopped and looked over his shoulder at her.

"Ans before you ask, no, I dont know which 'tree' you should be barking up. But I will throw you a bit of a bone; try again next time around, Im sure some of the crew will quit or get fired on this trip, maybe then you can get a job dancing in one of the clubs or something. I think you'd be a big hit there... At the very least, I'd come see you."

Lt Stevens finished off his comment with a slightly skeevy grin before continuing to walk out of the office and addressing one of the nearby security personnel.

"Make sure Ms Jurgan gets safely back on board a transport will you?"

The lieutenant, it seemed, was nothing more than a lackey. This wasn't going to work. Livea kept her face a mask of disappointment. As he turned and headed out of the room, however, her fingers moved quickly, planting a small device on the underside of the desk that was in the room. By the time he glanced back, it had appeared she hadn't moved at all. She began to follow him resignedly from the room.

A flicker of hope coursed through her as he spoke again, but it quickly fled faster than a ship entering hyperspace. It was nothing more than the typical male chauvinistic rhetoric. Her brilliant eyes flashed. She hated men. They were all the same, from the dirtiest lowlife in Coruscant's dampest street to the prince of an entire system. She didn't dignify the lieutenant with a response, but turned haughtily away as the security personnel began to escort her to a shuttle.

Fine, then we'll move onto plan besh, she thought. There were several possibilities. She could take the route that she was sure Ruby would most favor and make a fuss, refusing to leave until she saw the captain. Emerald had wanted them to draw attention to themselves. But she wasn't sure that a night in the brig would be quite the kind of attention they were hoping to get.

So she let herself be settled onto the shuttle, taking a seat in the rear. Once there was some distance between herself and other beings, she flicked her tongue to activate her internal comm. "Apparently they're not hiring," she murmured to Ruby and Emerald. "Going dirtside. See you in a few hours."

Her face disappointed at the missed job opportunity, Livea waited to be returned to the planet below.

((Sorry for the delay. Hope this shall do.))

Although his attack did not quite go as well as planned, the punch to his upper ankle and the discs impacting with his shins did not do as much damage as would be expected...in part due to the krayt dragonhide and the cortosis underweave that protected his legs and body and in part due to his already extensive natural resistance to pain mixed with his thick skin protecting from any lasting damage. It only served to push the massassi further and entice him to think more creatively.

As his sword was pulled from his grasp, Karys couldn't help but chuckle a little, amused at thinking what poor soul would be assigned to remove it and bring it to him after this dual was done and on thinking what the unfortunate person may think when seeing it where it was and just how it got there. He noted that for a few split seconds his master seemed to momentarily pause, or be distracted he wasn't sure which however it did not matter for it was a moment he would use to his own advantage. Limping a little due to the hit he took earlier, Karys struck. He was still somewhat enraged and found that something happened. He wasn't sure how or why but he found himself 'rushing' forwards faster than hew thought was possible before now, time seemed to slow as seconds became what seemed like minutes. He had heard from the elders of the forces ability to speed someone up as to make time seem still but had thought it nothing but a myth...that was until now. And then it all made sense.

This was what his master meant when he had said 'Your thoughts must be focused, must be clear of doubts.' In that moment when time stood still the massassi balancing on his lesser damaged foot advanced preparing himself for the brunt of his masters likely counter. His attack was two-fold. Firstly instead of outright charging he feigned an advance. Starting with a straight forward attack he sidestepped to Quietus left, grabbing or rather yanking Quietus arm en-route in a single twisting motion and remembered what he had learnt of pressure points in his youth as he jabbed under his armpit hard with his hand, in a angled balled fist that would hopefully cause a momentary lapse or at least a very sore pain throughout his arm as nerves gave way. In that moment his aim was simple. Grasping a hold of the same arm with his own arm and clasping both his arms shut around his master's neck and left arm from behind (think police lock in terms of where his arm is), the massassi attempted to force his master's arm down and to twist, the aim of which was to either snap it, disable it or cause severe discomfort for the remainder of the fight while simultaneously attempting to force Quietus to breath a little harder. With a single movement he yanked hoping his master's arm would lock correctly and that it would enable the following movements that made up the snapping motion as he adjusted his legs to compensate for his master's weight, his own and the possibility that both could topple or worse.

Quietus had expected more of a reaction from Karys; after all, the Sith Master had quite easily stripped the Massassi of his sword and tossed it aside with little more care than one tosses a stick. it was clear that even within this short show of skill, Karys was learning and adapting. There was no further burst of rage to cause wild movements, but instead it seemed to be controlled and to a point, aimed and focused. The burst of speed, which Quietus instantly realized was a manipulation of the Force, caught Quietus surprised, but far from off-guard. The Sith didnt expect it, but nor was he unprepared for it. He was after all, fully used to fighting in actual combat with fully trained Jedi, and this was far from those circumstances.

However, a thought struck Quietus as Karys rapidly closed the gap between them. He wanted to see just what the Massassi would do with this burst of speed, and so instead of countering the move, or even putting a stop to it outright with his own manipulations of the Force, he allowed Karys to grab his arm and begin twisting it behind Quietus' back. The jab to the armpit however, was poorly thought out given that Quietus was fully armored; he estimated that the impact with the apex of his chestpiece and upperarm plating would actually cause more harm to Karys' fist. The arm wrench however, was fairly effective at immobilizing Quietus arm, and even his armor began to creak slightly as it was wrenched out of place. For Quietus, this was the first real discomfort that Karys had inflicted, and it had been allowed out of curiosity, which only slightly diminished the achievement of it in the first place. For every ounce of muscle the Massassi put into the arm twist, Quietus returned with his own strength to reverse, or at least hold his arm in place.

He had seen a fair portion of what Karys was capable of, and what sort of combat his apprentice preferred. It seemed that Karys sought to defeat his opponents on their terms; Quietus began the fight unarmed, and so the Massassi pursued with unarmed martial arts. Only when that failed did it use weapons, and when the weapons were removed from the picture, he returned to unarmed combat. Whether the use of the Force in the third act of aggression had been intentional or not, it marked an increase and a change of tactic. Quietus had seen enough; now it was time to end the spar.

As Karys put all his effort into wrenching Quietus' arm, he had once again become tunnel visioned. His entire focus had been on Quietus' left arm, which while it was his dominant arm, he was by no means helpless with his right arm. And it was that right arm that would prove to unravel Karys' attack. In a swift motion, his right arm fell from its position gripping against Karys' arm, and to his waist, where his black lightsaber swung slightly on his belt from the struggle. In an instant, the hilt was in his hand, and a split second later his arm was moving again, arcing upwards towards Karys, only stopping when the hilt was pressed to the side of Karys' skull, the force of which was significant enough to be classified as a 'clubbing'.

Had this been an actual fight, and had Quietus wished to fully dissolve the situation, the second the hilt had touched Karys' head, the blade would have been active, and Karys' brains would have been severed instantly, turning him into little more than an empty pile of muscle, bone and skin. But Quietus did not wish to kill his apprentice; not yet at least. Instead it would be the first of a series of three moves to end the spar.

"Game..." his voice came, slightly gravely due to the hold Karys had gotten. The blow to the head had given Quietus the opening he needed. A blow to the head was rarely shaken off when delivered with enough power behind it, and the split second lapse in concentration and grip was not to go to waste. Quietus managed to take a step forward, and in the same motion bend forward. To enhance the move, the Sith Master also managed to get a sizable Force Push off the ground behind him where Karys was standing. The result was complex and perfectly timed in its execution, but fairly straight forward in its results; Karys was launched over Quietus' head and tossed barely a meter to the ground in front of the Sith. The fact that Karys attempted to retain the hold through the move merely meant that when Karys hit the ground, Quietus' own weight crashed down with equal force on top of the Massassi. If the first impact wasnt enough to break the hold, the second surely would, and once that was completed Quietus rolled off the Massassi and to his feet in a fluid motion.

"Set..." The voice rang again as Quietus returned to his feet. For the final move, Quietus decided to again antagonize his apprentice. With barely enough pause for Karys' gaze to refocus on Quietus, who was now standing over him, the Sith Master took another step forward, as his left arm shot out to the side. Something came flying across the room into Quietus hand, but the second it made contact with his hand Quietus moved again, swinging downward across the Massassi with enough power behind the swing, more a result of physics than anything special Quietus peppered it with, to cause a loud clang and a shower of dust.

Only when it settled would Karys' realize that Quietus had yanked the Massassi's blade from the ground with the Force, and swung it down hard enough to cause it to impale into the ground again, only this time the blade was angled sharply, and it was lying barely an inch above Karys' neck. In essence, the blade was pinning the Massassi to the ground by the neck.

"Match." The voice of Quietus spoke again, this time fully recovered. He only gave Karys enough time to lock gazes with the Sith Master before Quietus spun on his heel and walked back to where he had shed his Sith robes before turning to face the Massassi again. He half expected to turn and see Karys charging at him again like a raged bull. And that half also expected the Massassi would be in a pool of blood if it was foolish enough to try.

"I could have killed you with either of those attacks my apprentice; either by my lightsaber or your own ancient sword, your life would be ended. You are lucky I still find you useful... Now I want you to tell me... What do you believe were your errors during that fight?"

How a Sith viewed his mistakes, and how he learned from them was important, even more so to one of the Warrior caste. Karys' ability to evaluate himself and theorize on what he did wrong was key to Quietus and how the Massassi would be trained.

Luxury was the Shadow’s Gambit’s middle name. Emerald had been assaulted by the trappings of blatant commercialism from the moment she stepped off the planetary shuttle. The cloying odor of sweat and excitement mingled with the stale canned atmosphere, which didn’t entirely eradicate the former. In fact, the blonde thought she detected the distinct scent of unwashed Ryn. Yet this did nothing to detract from the perceived glamour, the pervasively advertised falsehood that you, too, could be like this holodrama star or that business tycoon. Flashing lights, neon signs, shopping complexes, tapcafes, and restaurants all vied for attention as patrons walked down the main causeways of the giant Star Destroyer. It was all a sham: a glorious, credit-sucking scam. And she, in the guise of Jenna Farlander, planned to get in on the credit sucking.  

To this effect, she was sitting at one of the high-stakes sabacc tables, looking every bit the spoiled, snotty heiress she was supposed to be. This particular establishment was lavishly decorated, with a Mon Cal sort of flavor to it. In any case, it was somewhere that the lowlifes of the galaxy would not find themselves welcome, for here, the lights were too bright, the holocams too obvious, and the bouncers too sturdy. No, this catered to the high life. Immaculate, pristine, and lavish, it was perhaps the kind of establishment that the Blood Gems would have operated, if they were interested in property management. But taking advantage of someone else’s credit was the name of the game for the Pirates, and, Emerald thought wryly, they certainly had none of the pesky morals that would get in the way of doing so.  

Ruby stood off her right shoulder, a pillar of frigid silence, her face a mask of stoicism. To her credit, the amusement that must have been boiling inside of her didn’t creep out onto her face in the slightest. This particular engagement was simply to get their feet wet in the atmosphere of the place, and maybe turn a few credits. As not many Chiss were seen for hire throughout the galaxy, “Jenna’s” bodyguard certainly turned a few heads, which was probably just fine with her. Emerald’s brain kicked into high gear as the play of the hand came to her again, and she reengaged the highest register of her voice as the Devaronian to her right lay down the queen of sabers and showed his hand, a meager 19 points, dark. The others at the table had already shown their colors: a Gotal to her left had started sitting pretty at a 21 of the dark variety, the Kuati nobleman next to him had a light 20, and a female Trandoshan that was the last in the rotation had already put down a dark 22. With the worthless contribution of the Devaronian, Emerald flashed an over-the-top grin, the familiar rush of a good win trickling up and down her spine.  

“Oh, dear,” she whined, putting a farm-girl flavor into her already saccharine speech. “Well, I hope you sweet folks saved enough to get you home.” Tossing her cards down onto the table, she heard the collective groan as the other players got a good view of her skillfully maneuvered 22-light, which trumped the Trandoshan’s dark suits. Not quite a pure sabacc, but it would do.  With an overplayed wink at the surprised Kuati gentleman, she leaned in to sweep up her winnings and almost paused as the comm crackled to life in her ear. Sapphire’s voice came in, part mischievous excitement and part dejected frustration.  

Dirtside? Emerald’s mind raced. They had planned for the eventuality that the ship would indeed be fully crewed, and that getting Sapphire aboard legitimately might not be possible. To that end, she had gone through the application process that any aspiring crew member would be subject to, but with a twist. “Livea Jurgan” already had the papers that identified her as a member of the crew.  All that she needed was the security card that would be carried by any of the computer specialists. Being that so far, she and Ruby hadn’t been in any computer-related areas, they hadn’t seen any such techheads, but it didn’t mean they weren’t plentiful on this massive ship. So, if she needed a new way to get on the ship, they’d oblige.  

Depositing the bag of credits into the small beaded lockbox doubling as a purse, she flashed a charming smile at her compatriots at the table and rose. “Ladies and Gentlebeings, thank you for the pleasure of your acquaintance. And for the pleasure of your credits. Until next time.”  Turning on her heel, she exited the casino with Ruby alongside her.  

It didn’t take them long to reach their suite. It certainly wasn’t the biggest or most luxuriant that the oversized floating hotel offered, but it was lavish all the same, with beautifully upholstered furnishings, every technological amenity imaginable, and sanisteam units that could make you smell like anything you possibly wanted. Flopping onto an oversized couch, she grinned at Ruby, pulled the holdout blaster out of her sleeve, and fired at her.  

The shot went wide, burrowing into the refrigeration unit in the wall just behind, and the dispenser exploded with a pop and a sizzle. Ruby hadn’t budged, but was now wearing a slightly incredulous expression.  

Emerald tucked her holdout blaster back into her sleeve and held both hands up in front of her. “Before you say anything, I promise, that was for a reason. Trust me.”  

Walking over to the comm unit on the wall, she pressed a button, winking at Ruby. “Um, technical support? This is Jenna Farlander in unit 527C. We seem to be having a slight… uh… computer malfunction with the refrigeration unit. It won’t dispense Blue Milk, and as my father is the richest Blue Milk rancher on Tatooine, it won’t sit well with him if I, his own daughter, can’t—“

A harried voice interrupted her, clearly not in the mood to listen to an entitled tirade. “We’ll have someone right there, miss, please stand by.”  

The comm unit clicked, and Emerald jerked her head in the direction of the door. “And now we wait,” she said slyly.   It didn’t take long. A scant twenty minutes later, the door chimed. Ruby pressed the button that admitted the technician, a mousy, distracted little man. He recoiled in surprise, obviously intimidated by the beauty of the two women that stood before him.   “Oh, come in, please, sir,” Jenna intoned, the high pitch putting strain on Emerald’s voice. “We were just discussing the nature of our technical problem, if you’ll come this way.”  

The man nodded, stammering something under his breath, and as Ruby led him around the corner, he got his first view of the mutilated beverage unit. His mouth gaped, and he turned to look at Emerald. “Wh—what h-h-appened here, miss?”  

She dangled the holdout blaster from her fingertips. “It ran into a blaster bolt. Funny how that happens sometimes.”   The man’s hand darted for his comlink, but not faster than Ruby’s blow caught him across the back of the head. He collapsed into a pile of skin and bones and uniform.  

“Geez, ‘Sella, you didn’t have to hit him so hard,” she laughed, stooping to retrieve his security clearance card and all other papers of note. In moments, they had also drenched him in various forms of liquor and dumped him unceremoniously down the garbage chute, clutching a bottle in his unconscious hand.  

She flicked her rear molar with her tongue sharply and heard the comm hiss to life in her ear. “Liv, copy. Suggest you take the next civilian bird spaceward. Bring the uniform. Over.”

Ruby fiddled with the small electronic device sitting on a caf table in the middle of their suite for what had to be the millionth time. One of the many insurance policies that they'd brought along, the apparatus functioned as a jammer, obstructing any hidden cameras or microphones that might be in their rooms. Ruby had been the one to come up with the idea for it, though it had been Sapphire that had brought that idea to life. Which, all things considering, was probably a good idea, because if there did happen to be cameras in the room, right about now someone would most likely be wondering why exactly Emerald had felt the need to shoot the refridgeration unit. And the whole thing that followed.

Just before they'd dumped him down the chute, Ruby had put one last final touch on the whole shebang- she'd poured the rest of the last bottle of alcohol down his throat. Just in case someone insisted on a sobriety test.

With an appraising look at the beverage dispenser, Ruby cast a mockingly mournful look at Emerald. "You really did a number on this thing, 'Jenna'. I was thirsty too, now we're gonna have to go find a tapcaf." She didn't manage to keep a straight face the entire way through the sentence, snickering at the end of it. "The look on his face was priceless, I almost feel sorry for him." She paused, pretending to consider. "Nah. We're having too much fun to pity him."

With a bounding leap over the caf table, she dropped onto the couch next to Emerald and propped her feet up, grinning. "Now, let's talk about how lucky you got with that last shift..."

The bridge crew was bustling around doing their duties to the best of their abilities. The problem was that from where Captain Kira was standing, their efforts currently werent good enough, but there was little he could do. He knew that they were all trying their hardest. Other than being swamped with things to do, the 'show' was running along smoothly. The guests were arriving in droves and settling into their cabins and exploring the ship. Of course, nothing works perfectly forever.

"Captain? You said to let you know if anything--" a junior crewman started, jostling the captain out of his thought process.

"If anything went wrong, yes yes. What is it?" he replied.

"We just got a repair call to one of the VIP suites." The crewman responded, knowing just how much of an incident it could become. Captain Kira cursed slightly under his breath. He knew far more than the crewman did; if this became an incident, he would be the one catching flak from Quietus and from the VIP. He sighed and began approaching the crewman as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Which one..."

"Uhm.. lets see here. a Miss Jenna Farlander, in unit 527C. She called it in herself."

Those words however, caused the normally steeled Captain to stop dead in his tracks. He looked at the crewman, who seemed confused by Kira's sudden stop. With his brow furrowed, he remained quiet for a second more while he racked his brain.

"Are you absolutely sure that was the name?" Captain Kira asked, his tone suddenly deadly serious. The crewman could only nod an affirmative as the captain recalled that this Ms Farlander called it in herself. The repercussions of this caused another, not so subtle, curse to escape his lips. As far as things going wrong on the ship could go, this was more than Kira was willing to accept happening on his first trip. Given how big of an oppertunity this was for Captain Kira, his crew, and the ship's backers, he wanted the entire trip to go perfectly, especially for the numerous VIPs on board. As such, the Captain had taken the time to memorize each of the names, origins, and important facts of all the VIPs, most of which were staying in sections 520A through 540E. A fair number of those VIPs were the same ones that Captain Kira had previously had to personally speak to regarding the ban on personal ships aboard the Shadow's Gambit. Whatever those VIPs desired, the Captain was aiming to ensure that they got it so that they would reflect highly on the ship and its crew.

The name Jenna Farlander, was not one of those VIPs. Whoever this woman was, she was clearly not supposed to be in that unit. As he stood there transfixed for a moment, he quickly turned to grab his datapad and pulled up the full list of passengers, and after a quick search, found that Jenna Farlander, whoever she was, was not even suposed to be on board this ship.

"I already dispatched the technician... Should I try to get him back?" The crewman offered, eager to find a way out of the hole he suddenly felt he was in.

"Probably no point now," the captain responded with a sour taste in his mouth before he could recover his command attitude. With his mind made up, Kira issued the orders. "Send a full security detail to that unit, but be discrete. I dont want the other passengers in that area finding out."

The crewman nodded and set about issuing the orders with the same haste that the Captain now found himself possessing as he returned to his datapad to make sense of what the hell was going on aboard his ship. Somehow, this Jenna had not only gotten past the private security firm on the ground in the spaceport, but had then managed to bypass the ship's own security when she stepped off the transport; neither of those facts made Kira very happy at the moment. The Captain hoped that things would be resolved soon, as he particularly didnt want to have to bring the matter to Quietus' attention. The mere thought of it brought back the stories that the Captain had heard in his time as an Imperial Major about Sith and command officers.

"And get me a transcript of her comm call. I want to hear exactly what she said!" He barked at no one in particular.

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

By the time that Security detail Charlie-Seven, consisting of a squad of six security guards in light armor and each carrying a Defender sporting blaster pistol arrived in the hallway just outside unit 527C, they had been fully briefed. The Captain had patched into their frequency a few minutes prior to inform the team that everyone in the unit was to be taken into custody alive by any means. The Captain had confirmed to them that Unit 527C was in fact registered to a Hutt Cartel boss that had never shown up, likely to provide the man with an alibi for any crimes committed under his watch during that time. The Captain had surmised that was part of the reason the cabin had been poached by its current occupants. Adding to the damning evidence against the current occupants was the fact that there was no one, or at least no one worthy of being noted, on Tattooine with the last time Farlander, not to mention being the 'richest blue milk rancher' on the dust ball of a planet. All of this had left the Captain with only one thing left to do; give the orders. The plan was a fairly simple and straight forward flash and enter, especially for a team like Charlie-Seven who had been training for an inevitability such as this since they came on board weeks ago.

After a silent count, the lead man of Charlie-Seven keyed in the access code, and cracked the door open.

"Dale?" he casually called out the name of the technician who had been sent on the call initially. "Dispatch has been trying to get a hold of you.."

The rest of the mock conversation was lost as the second member of Charlie-Seven primed and tossed a flashbang grenade directly into the room, keying it to detonate on contact. With precise timing, the entire Charlie-Seven team surged into the room, firing an array of stun beams at anything and everything that moved in the aftermath of the flashbang in a standard room clearing sweep.

<>

    “…it was NOT a lucky break, I planned it that way. That stupid Trandoshan couldn’t even hold her cards correctly; I saw everything she had and knew I could beat her,” Emerald scoffed, the playful grin on her face implying to her dark-haired compatriot that, even if Ruby was right, she’d never let on.  

It had grown rather still in the time since their visit from the technician, and the Blood Gems had stashed the security card and other paraphernalia he had carried in the hidden pocket in Ruby’s jumpsuit, and the Pirates now lounged about as they wished. The lithe blonde had taken the first opportunity to divest herself of her too-tall heels, tossing them haphazardly away into the middle of the floor. Although the two were in theory able to use the present moments to their leisure, Emerald found herself oddly tense, too tense to enjoy her surroundings. Although, the blonde reflected, as frustrating as that might be, there was good reason for it. This was a far cry from the dingy quarters they had been obligated to endure for the previous month on Hapes. The plush carpets, the upholstered furniture, even the patterned wallpaper that came as an exotic change from bulkhead white, all lent themselves to the uneasy feeling that now settled in the pit of Emerald’s stomach. The words for how she was feeling finally came, but they didn’t lessen the intensity of the kitterpat currently crawling around her intestines.  

This had been too easy. That was the kriffing problem.  

The entire setup for their arrival was a fiasco, and Emerald had nearly called it quits even then. Why, then, when it was time for them to board this incredibly “safe” luxury vessel, did they merit the way security had treated them? Spared only cursory glances, only moderate amounts of pawing through their possessions. Maybe it was luck.  

Maybe it wasn’t.  

With the next wave of frustration, Emerald became aware of the tension in her shoulders and made a conscious effort to relax them. No good. Her mind was too wrapped up in this sixth sense, the nagging feeling that said something was not right. Her vibroknife spun, seemingly of its own accord, back and forth across the fingers of her right hand. It was all she could do to keep herself from jumping up from her precarious seat on the edge of the couch and pacing the length of the room.

Almost immediately, Ruby stood and begun to do just that. Idea stealer.  

A sudden flash of movement over her shoulder lured in Emerald’s gaze, and the door, which had been sealed via the inside lock, began to slide open. Sapphire would have commed if she was here, and they were expecting no one else. This was a trap, a latent response to the absence of the mousy technician.  

Emerald’s Mistryl instincts kicked in, and she jumped up, sprinting for the garbage chute where they had dumped the unfortunate computer nerd, before the voice even began to come from the door. Ruby had moved several steps ahead of her, already somersaulting into the hatch, when Emerald found herself sprawled facefirst across the carpet. The smell of chemicals assaulted her, proving the stoic newness of her environment.  

Kriffing high heels. She wasn’t even wearing them and they were a nuisance. Willing herself to her feet, she had barely taken a step before the flash grenade blinded her. Stumbling, her hands held out in front of her, she dove recklessly, hoping that the chute was where her mind’s eye had put it.  

Miracles happen, she thought smugly, as she hit the flap of the small hatch and squeezed through, waiting for the sensation of free-fall into darkness and odor that never came.  

Kriffing dress. Kriffing everything. The last thing that Emerald remembered before the stun bolt from above rendered her unconscious was the deep and conceding frustration that it had been HER idea to choose the lacy dress that now found her dangling in midair, suspended by the folds of fabric, likely a good 25 meters from the bottom of the chute.

As much as Ruby hated to talk about her past life, therre was something to be said for having been raised in a military environment. The second that the door had started to slide open her senses had gone to high alert, hair on the back of her neck standing on end as she and Emerald both realized that they'd screwed up with the technician.

One rolling dive took her the short distance back to the garbage chute, another dive put her headfirst down it, following the path of the unlucky tech that they'd dumped down it so shortly beforehand. One arm in front of her face to protect herself, Ruby slid through the chute on her stomach a short distance, then found herself in freefall. In the short amount of time she had to prepare, she ruefully wondered how far above her Emerald was and how much this was probably going to hurt.

The answer was a lot.

She'd at least managed to twist herself around enough to take the brunt of the landing impact on one shoulder, but it still knocked the air from her lungs and left her lying there on her back for what seemed like an eternity, trying to suck oxygen back into them. When she finally suceeded and rolled onto her hands and knees, coughing, she found the technician underneath her. Poor guy, to get sucked into the middle of all of this. And he'd most likely been coming to when she'd landed on him, effectively knocking him out again. Oh well.

Finally back on her feet, she glanced around, looking for the way out of the giant pile of trash she'd landed in. The actual journey to the door took longer than hotwiring it did, and Ruby breathed a small sigh of relief as she stepped out into the hallway. Only then did she activate the small comlink in her mouth, relieved to find out that it was still functioning after that escapade.

"Em, where are you?" No answer. "Em? Em!" A glance back into the room she'd just vacated showed no sign of the blonde, and Ruby gritted her teeth and activated the comm again. "Sapph... We have a HUGE problem."

Glancing both directions down the hall to make sure it was clear of security patrols, Ruby darted down the long corrridor, relying on the extensive studying of the blueprints they'd done to get her back to the relative safety of the casino's multitudes of passengers. Despite the fact that she was more than likely the only Chiss on board, there was still safety in a crowd if you knew how to blend in and not draw attention to yourself.

Which is exactly what she'd do- after she found a public refresher. Being covered in garbage was not good camouflage. What exactly they would do once Sapphire finally got back up to the Gambit she wasn't sure... Though she still had the technician's keycard in her pocket, she was sure they could count on it being disabled once they found him sitting in a pile of garbage without it. It wouldn't hurt to hang onto it just in case, but in the meantime they'd have to come up with a different plan... and a way to find out what had happened to Emerald and get her out of it.

Okay, this is how this is going down. IE ate my post, twice. If you'd like to see the full reasoning for this, PM me. I'll attempt to re-type my ruling post with solid reasoning on why this works the way it does.

Emerald - capture successful.

Ruby - capture unsuccessful, with one caveat. Ruby's actions were a bit of a stretch, but Raynuk's forces are alerted to a hotwired door on the garbage level. You each get one more post, if Raynuk decides to continue his pursuit.

((Glad I could give you the chance to use your green text Charles ))

Breach + 1:00

The entire clearing of the suite took less than a minute, and for Charlie-Seven, it was at least a partial success. The moment the security detail busted into the room, the two occupants had scattered like roaches exposed to light, but in this case they both aimed to take the direct route to the garbage chute. There was unfortunate news for both parties involved; by the time the team had rushed in, the blonde had taken the full force of the flashbang, and was thus an easy target for the stun beams. For her effort though, she did manage to make to to the garbage chute right as she was hit. it was only the austerity of her dress, which got caught up attempting to squeeze through the chute that prevented her from succeeding. On the other hand however, the team leader of Charlie-Seven saw only a flash of movement a split second before it too disappeared down the chute. if nothing else, the team knew that there was at least one other person in the room before they breached it.

Breach + 5:00

Another few minutes saw the team haul the blonde back into the room and secure her in stun-cuffs, while the team leader talked to Captain Kira. As luck would have it, less than a minute after the breach had happened, an alarm had gone off in the trash compactor room that was connected to Suite 527C, which meant that the security details now had a manhunt on their hands. Aboard a ship, even one as grand as this, it was only a matter of time before the fugitive was tracked down and caught. When backup arrived, the blonde was handed over and taken to the brig, while Charlie Seven completed a full security sweep of the room. Meanwhile, the break in, or more likely, break out of the trash compactor revealed the unconscious and severely injured technician who was no longer in possession of his security cards or identification. For all intents, the man had been mugged of everything short of his clothing, including his dignity. The technician was promptly moved to the medical bay, and all of his access codes and clearances were revoked.

Breach + 20:00

Fifteen more minutes saw the completion of the security check, during which Charlie-Seven found a few pieces of interesting tech; a particularly vicious looking vibroknife that had apparently been abandoned in fleeing, and a small electronic jamming device that produced a short range jam on all electronics, be it a security camera or microphone. The pieces themselves were not individually cause for an undue amount of concern or worry, but there was more to be found. After transporting the blonde to the brig, Captain Kira ordered a similarly thorough check of the blonde, and that was where things began to add up. Everything was taken from the blonde short of her underwear, and it was then that the blonde's holdout blaster and neural whip were found, which only caused what the blonde did have on her to come under more scrutiny, which lead to the discovery of her explosives mascaraed as pearls as well as the earwig comm receiver.

When all of the discoveries were added up, it left Captain Kira with a very bad feeling in his stomach considering that there was at least one other person on board the ship who was most likely working with this individual. It was however, still a situation that the Captain felt he could contain without help from Quietus, and so he intended to end the situation as soon as possible. It was clear to the Captain that he was coming face to face with professionals, which, while it answered a few questions as to how they got on board, it raised a whole bunch more questions, particularly what they were here for. Were they from a rival casino, intent upon destroying or at least discrediting the Shadow's Gambit? Perhaps they were assassins, here to kill one of the guests? Questions kept flying through the Captain's head, and it took a considerable amount of effort for him to realize that asking such questions was a lost cause; he needed to focus on tracking down this other person.

Breach + 30:00

A full thirty minutes had passed since the escape from suite 527C, and the Captain had come up with a plan. With the blonde in a brig cell with nothing more than her underwear and a sheet, and her possessions that had been confiscated from the room and her persons, she was of little threat any longer. The head of security, Major Charles Winters and Captain Kira had managed to locate the blonde on the security cameras within the casinos. From there, they began to track her movements within the ship as best as they could while a tech team attempted to patch the earwig and its rotating frequencies into their own comm systems per the Captain's orders; if any conversations were being broadcast over the device, he and Major Winters wanted to know.

Breach + 33:27

In less than four minutes, Major Winters had made a pre-emptive identification on the second occupant of Suite 527C; a Chiss female wearing a combat jumpsuit, and had cross referenced that description with security feeds from the trash compactor section where she was believed to have fled to. On a ship like this, spotting a Chiss was only mildly difficult; spotting one wearing a combat jumpsuit on that level was even easier. But spotting a Chiss female, wearing a combat jumpsuit on the trash compactor level, who just so happened to be covered in trash was little harder than throwing a rock into an ocean from two meters. And so she was spotted on the security feeds just down the hall from the trash compactor. From there, the Chiss was tracked through the time since the breach up until real time. She had done her best to avoid security cameras where she could, but in her initial act of fleeing she appeared to be too preoccupied with avoiding physical security and getting to her destination to make a grade A effort in avoiding the cameras. Likely the fact that she was now alone didnt help. She quickly headed for a public refresher, to remove the grime of a trip through the trash compactors, before attempting to hide out among the common passengers within one of the casinos.

Breach + 45:30

The Chiss had not strayed far from her position, choosing to follow the ebb and flow of the passengers through the casino. Whether she was at a loss in terms of a plan, or simply waiting for a specter of reinforcement, she was not making moves one way or another. And so with Major Winters watching her movements from the bridge, and members of his security details watching her on the casino floor, Captain Kira took the time to study the Chiss and the Blonde; watching their movements since they had arrived on the ship, and also having had a number of items sent up to his ready room just off the bridge. It included the blonde's ID card. Winters had informed the Captain that the ID was forged, but it was a very high quality one at that. With every passing moment, and every clue that was turned up, the Captain was feeling less and less at ease with the situation. But feeling that until the Chiss made contact with someone else or made a move, the situation was fairly contained. The entire security staff aboard the Shadow's Gambit was now aware of the Chiss woman and her appearance, and Captain Kira was not eager to cause a massive disturbance.

Breach + 62:53

Major Winters however, was not of a like mind as his Captain. He knew that the Chiss was most likely counting on attempting to avoid a disturbance. The Major was not one to let a suspect go so easily. Perhaps that was why he had been discharged from CoreSec a few months back; Winters enjoyed the hunt and the capture, perhaps a bit too much. So, a little over an hour after the breach, and half as long since he and the Captain had tracked down and IDed the second suspect, Winters set his own plan in motion, consequences be damned. If all went as he predicted, any disciplinary action the Major might receive for acting on his own volition would be lessened or negated by the capture of the Chiss.

Watching from the security control center, major Winters directed perhaps his single best officer to enter the casino in casual clothing and armed only with a stun baton. The officer didnt even look for the Chiss; he had the Major in his ear directing his movements, taking a very casual yet normal approach to the Chiss that took the officer with the flow of the crowd. When the officer got close enough, passing just behind the Chiss, he struck, jabbing the non-friendly end of the baton into the small of her back full force.

The move was less than as quiet as the Major would have liked to see from his best; it caused a fair number of passengers to take note with glances and gasps. If all went according to plan, the Chiss would simply slump into the arms of the officer, knocked out cold to be dragged off to the brig. If things went poorly for the officer, the passengers would likely waste little time attempting to flag down a member of the ships security, who had been strategically placed at all the exits of the casino in which the Chiss had chosen to hide in. If she made a run for it, she would run into a salvo of stun blasts from the alerted officers. Either way, Major Winters was confident that this was a trap the Chiss would not be able to extract herself from.

<>

Ruby had expected them to track her. Even if she'd made it down the chute before the door had fully opened and the flashbang had gone off, if this casino's security was worth its salt they would have launched a full investigation into "Jenna," and any camera scrutiny whatsoever would've revealed her nearby at any of the times they had been out in public on the casino floor. That, combined with the fact that as a Chiss she more than likely stuck out like a sore thumb, left Ruby no illusions about whether or not she was being tracked through the casino.

But she'd planned for this. Capture was always a risk for the Blood Gems, given their line of work, and evasion was part and parcel of the job. So restored to a mostly clean state, Ruby began the task of counter-surveillance, all while pretending that she was just trying futilely to hide in the crowd. Fortunately, casinos were always filled with brightly polished objects.

The sentinels at the doors were the easiest to spot- in such a location where people were always coming and going, someone standing still and not talking to anyone or engaged in some other social interaction were always suspect, more so when they were at every exit. Ruby slowly made her way across the casino, following the tides of pedestrian traffic, glancing back and forth at different mirrored surfaces, getting a feel for what was behind her. At first she thought that she only had to worry about the perimeter security, but it gradually became apparent that one of the people behind her was doing everything in his power to avoid looking directly at her, and was every so slowly edging closer and closer to her, one arm held slightly behind his back as if he were trying to hide something.

Eyes still roaming about the room as if she hadn't noticed anything at all, Ruby slowly edged closer and closer to her chosen escape route. As the man tailing her finally moved within striking range, Ruby knew her moment had come.

Deflection of the brutal thrust aimed at her back was a mere matter of pivoting on the ball of one foot and striking backwards with her elbow, the bony joint connecting firmly with the pressure point on the man's wrist and the stun baton dropping to the floor as Ruby used her momentum to snap her other foot up into a high kick, connecting with his jaw. Before he even had a chance to react, Ruby continued her barrage- jab to the nose, a blow to the ear, a kick to his groin, her knee into his face when he doubled over. She grabbed him by the collar and hauled him upright again just to plant a fist firmly into his diaphragm as blood streamed from his nose.

"Help, I'm being robbed!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice carrying across the entire casino, the rest of the crowd turning to look as those than had been observing the altercation clustered more closely around him. All eyes now on the incognito security guard, Ruby carefully slipped toward the back of the crowd, toward the wall she'd previously been aiming for.

A vibroknife blade between the grate and the wall popped it away from air duct, and she swung her lithe body into it as the mob she'd created blocked her from the view of the guards posted at the doors. She pulled the grate carefully back up against the wall before squeezing down the small conduit. She knew someone would likely find it soon, but by then she'd be safely in hiding.

This was where being thoroughly familiar with the vessel's schematics would come in handy. Shimmying through the tunnel, she began to count intersections and drop-offs until she finally came to the one she needed. Pulling a pair of magnetic hand grips from one of the myriad of pockets on her combat suit, she began her ascent.

The periodic roar grew louder as she grew closer to her target, and she firmly put the aching of her arms and shoulders out of her mind as she dragged herself upwards hand over hand. When she finally reached the top of the shaft, she collapsed into the duct running perpendicular to it, breathing heavily as she worked the kinks from her tired limbs. Once her breathing had returned to normal, Ruby moved the short distance to the end of the current conduit, feet first, and kicked out the grate, letting it fall to the surface below. Then she swiftly moved the opposite direction, counting turns until she reached the end of another duct. Attaching one of the magnets to the grate in front of her and making sure she had a firm grasp on it, she thrust the heel of her other hand into one corner of grate at a time, slowly working it loose. The magnet held as it popped free, and she carefully set it off to one side.

A quick glance out of the newly made hole revealed that she was, indeed, now in the turbolift shaft, the maintenance ladder just a few short meters to the side. Rolling onto her back, Ruby slowly edged her body out of the tunnel, holding onto a pipe running along the wall above her for support, her toes on one below. Finally satisfied that it would hold her weight, she grasped the top pipe firmly with one hand and reached down to grab the grate. Moving ever so carefully so she wouldn't drop it, she worked it back into place, tapping the corners gently with one foot to make sure they were firmly seated. Only then did she begin the somewhat arduous task of pulling herself along the pipes to reach the ladder, her already fatigued arms protesting the entire way. But finally she was standing with her feet firmly upon a metal rung.

The turbolift chose that moment to rush past her, barely a hand's breadth away, and Ruby pulled her body closer to the ladder, grateful that it hadn't come past while she was replacing the grate, and took a deep breath as she began to descend. After what seemed like forever, she finally reached what she had been aiming for- an alcove dug out of the turbolift shaft wall, meant as a haven in case a tech was injured while servicing the lift and couldn't make it back to a service hatch. And it would serve her purposes well.

As she swung herself into the indent and settled as far back from the edge as she could get, Ruby considered trying to comm Sapphire, but refrained from it, unsure if the security pursuing her would resort to trying to trace comm frequencies. She was sure Sapph knew from her prior comm that they were in trouble... she'd just have to be patient and wait for a reply.

So she waited in the near dark, her mind running through any possible options for breaking Emerald out of holding and getting the kriff off of this ship.

Raynuk, tsk. Bit of a powerplay there, posting her actions for her. Yes, she posted some of her intentions in the post prior, but never assume and post others' actions for them. Ruby, an excellent way of dealing with it. I'm solidly impressed with the escape attempt, you not only rolled with the punches, but also countered magnificently. Both posts were written exceptionally well, but the sealing deal was Raynuk posting Ruby's actions before she made them.

Another thing was brought to my attention:

Link

She reached into her pocket. "Which I suppose is another good reason I got these." She tossed each of her fellow pirates a high tech comm device. It broke into two pieces. One was placed on a tooth. That was the activation device, which they could tap with a flick of a tongue. The earbud half was so tiny that it could be imbedded deep in the ear, deep enough so that any potential eavesdroppers would be thwarted. "Undetectable, and on a highly encrypted channel that rotates every minute. Could come in handy, especially when we arrange times to meet up together."

It was pointed out to me that Emerald might have had this pass her search as she passed into custody. However, the post implies the earbud is visible, and despite being deep in the ear, in a thorough search (body cavity search), it would have been found and confiscated. I read this as it is undetectable to scanners and other comm traffic receivers, but not to the naked eye. Raynuk's actions as far as the earbud stand.

Capture attempt on Ruby failed.

In time, the NPCs may discover her escape route, but though several branching ducts, she could have gone anywhere, and the more time where she isn't found, the longer she has to travel anywhere on the ship, further causing your search radius to widen and become more ineffective as it draws in more manpower and resources to find one person on a very large ship.

I was going to post some stupidly improbable stuff like the guard attempting to stun her accidentally grabbed the wrong end of the baton, or that the hardwired garbage door caused an electrical cascade failure that triggered the fire response systems to spray foam retardant on everyone, but Ruby escaped pretty effectively on her own. Instead, she can manage to find a cache in her alcove consisting of the entire life's savings of one of the technicians, who is about to retire. I can't really think of anything else that wouldn't unbalance the situation severely outside of an obvious deus ex machina, so I'll leave it there.

SO BE IT. *Thunder boom*

Karys allowed his lip to curl ever so slightly at being defeated, it was not something he ever looked forward too. As his master spoke he considered what to say as he weighed what he had done in the fight. He knew he had done well to begin with but near the end he had let his rage and emotions take too much control of his body, this he believed was what allowed him to lose along with becoming too predictable.

He arose from the ground as Quietus placed his robe back on and spoke.

''I believe it was twofold. I became too predictable and also allowed my rage and emotions of the fight to consume me thus allowing you to control the fight in your favor until I experienced what could only be described as 'speeding' up as it were. I was unaware I was capable of such a thing...it is something I would like to explore further in the future. But regardless of this slight advantage had I not be so blinded by rage and been so predictable I may have won, it is something I shall consider in future and meditate upon when time permits.''

It was while thinking upon this, while delving in the force ever so briefly that he was sure he felt something...a disturbance. He didn't know what it was but the force told him something was going on and close by. It intrigued him as to what it may be and so he inquired at it with his master.

''There is something else as well master. I feel...a disturbance, within the force. What it is I do not know but it appears close by at least that's what I believe the force to be telling me.''

As Quietus adjusted his robes, his apprentice began analyzing his actions and speaking what conclusions he had come to. The Sith did not turn to face his apprentice, but listened none the less to what he had to say Predictable... consume me... blinded by rage... Quietus merely shook his head in disappointment. The Massassi had missed some key points entirely, but did manage to mention a few truths of the spar. Finally Quietus turned to gaze upon his apprentice and correct him.

"No my apprentice... Your failures lie in other places. It was not a matter of being predictable, but a matter of leaving holes in your attacks. They were simple, and thinly stacked; a punch, a kick. You must anticipate what your opponent will do in response, and ensure that you prepare for those reactions as well, before you even attack in the first place. You see being consumed by your rage and emotions to be a failure? That is what drives us! Our rage, our emotions, the fear we instill in others... That is what fuels our fire in combat."

Quietus paused for a moment, falling into silence and letting it settle, letting the echo of his preceding words fade before continuing. All at once, as he spoke, the air around them seemed to chill ever so slightly, and the mood definitely darkened. For his part, Quietus closed his eyes, a simple reminder of the past and what the words he was about to speak meant to him. He did not speak them lightly, for they were not given to him lightly by Barohm Zar, all those years ago.

Miers ir meli; Tur ir tikai aizraušanās.

Ar aizrautību, es gūt spēku.

Ar spēku, es iegūt varu.

Izmantojot varu, es gūt uzvaru.

Caur uzvaru, mans ķēdēm ir sadalīti.

Spēks nosaka mani bez maksas.

The words were, of course, the ancient language of the Sith, something which Karys would have recognized instantly. But even knowing the language as Quietus did, he still felt the purpose behind translating them to drive his point home. His eyes slid open and once again locked on the Massassi before him.

Peace is a lie; There is only passion.

Through passion, I gain Strength.

Through Strength, I gain Power.

Through Power, I gain Victory.

Through Victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall set me free.

That is the Sith Code my apprentice. Your plunge into rage and emotion is exactly what being a Sith is about; you only failed in that you allowed yourself to become too focused; you were blinded and failed to see what was clearly in front of you. Perhaps your biggest mistake, was to abandon your weapon so easily. I disarmed you of it and set it aside, easily enough for me to steal it back when the opportunity arose. But once I removed it from your possession, you acted as if it no longer existed."

Quietus was beginning to start somewhat of a rant, and as such he closed the distance between the two.

"If you were fighting an opponent who held a lightsaber, and you were similarly disarmed of your sword, would you not attempt to retreive it instantly? Or would you be foolish enough to attempt to fight without a means of defense against a lightsaber? And then, you again failed by not accounting for what I could do with my right arm. Had I chosen to use my full powers of the Dark Side, you would not have even gotten close enough to grab my arm."

Quietus was growing disgusted with Karys' inability, or lack of wanting, to learn from his mistakes and analyze them completely. He was too focused on the surface issues of things, never seeing past them to the source. He turned away from Karys and began walking away again, falling into silence for a few heavy steps before speaking again, seemingly calmer.

"No my apprentice... your failure lies in the fact that you, are blind. Blind to your faults, and blind to what drives everything. Your... experience of speeding up... That is the first sign I have seen from you of Force manipulation. You used the Force to speed up your movements, enacting your dominating will upon your muscles and limbs, to push you faster than you can naturally go. It is through such actions, through inflicting our will that we achieve greatness. The Force is ours to command, ours to twist, ours to control and do what we want it to do. Through it we speed ourselves up, as you did. We toss the weak from buildings, we choke the air from their lungs, and we cause lightning to crack and flesh to burn. In time you will come to find the Force will allow you to do, and improve upon, many things."

He turned again to find that Karys seemed to be, distant. Caught up in his own mind for just a second. It was long enough that Quietus was preparing to punish his apprentice for not paying attention, but stayed his hand when the Massassi spoke of a disturbance. It was then that Quietus eased off, and nodded.

"Yes, I have felt it as well, but even I can not place it. Given our location over Coruscant, it is hard to distinguish if it came from the planet, or even this ship. Normally in a location as densely populated as this, such a weak disturbance either means it is far away, or it is a lesser individual. Either way it would normally be of little consequence or interest to me... But this is not a normal time. Even the slightest disturbance aboard this ship is of concern to me."

Quietus turned and began walking, intent upon arriving at the bridge as soon as possible, but digging out his comlink in the meantime to contact Captain Kira.

"Come. This lesson is over for now, think about what you have learned my apprentice."

=========================================================================================================

By the time that Darth Quietus walked through the doors and onto the bridge, he had been fully briefed by Captain Kira on the situation that had developed; the maintenance call, the conflicting crew roster, the missing tech, the ensuring breach of the room, the capture of one individual, and the escape of the other. It was a briefing that Kira was not prepared for, and one that he was attempting to avoid. Throughout the entire situation, Kira had been both confident and hopeful that it was a situation that he could handle with the ship's crew. By all accounts he had done just that, as things had never gone so far that he felt the need to involve the Sith Master. But when Quietus contacted him regarding the situation, Kira had been somewhat less than prepared to tell Quietus what had happened.

But now Quietus knew the majority of the details, and had arrived on the bridge himself. As the SIth approached Kira, all the Captain could think was "Well, I've lived a good life havent I? Can count my regrets on one hand, was proud of the work I did. Became the Captain of this fine ship, even if it only lasts a few weeks." The Captain knew the stories, and the minute he had come to work for Quietus, he had silently accepted that one day, he might disappoint the Sith, and would be killed for it, right in front of his crew. But if Captain Jacob Kira was going to die on this day, he would die standing tall and proud. And so as Quietus closed the distance in silence, the Captain straightened up, and stood as tall as he could, silently preparing himself, knowing that the face of Quietus would be the last thing he would see before his life was snuffed out.

"Dont just stand there Captain! Bring me up to speed!"

It took Captain Kira a second or two to realize that today was not the day that his career as a starship captain was going to come to an end. After clearing through the confusion in his mind and focusing on the fact that Quietus was standing there, staring at him, waiting; the second to last thing that Captain Kira wanted to do.

"Uh-Uhm. Of course my lord. My apologies. As I mentioned before, we managed to capture one of the women, and through her we've gotten a greater picture of what they were up to. It is our belief that they were going to attempt a heist of the ship of some kind. Unfortunately, the second woman escaped and is hiding out somewhere in the ship, a Chiss according to our investigations. She hasnt been seen in over an hour, so we believe she's holed up somewhere."

Quietus nodded as Kira relayed the latest developments regarding the intruders. The fact that they had been able to get on the ship with falsified documents in the first place was enough to aggravate Quietus, but then for them to have the audacity to attempt to steal from the ship, his ship, was enough to bring anger to Quietus. The Captain had done his best to control and deal with the issue, but now...

Now it was time for Quietus to take over.

"What did you find from our prisoner Captain." His words were firm and calm. Hiding the anger behind his facade of control.

"She still hasnt regained conciousness, but we stripped her of everything, except perhaps her dignity. There was a communications jammer in the room they were using. The woman herself was carrying these..."

The Captain turned and gestured to the table he had been standing at, which was covered with the posessions the security teams had recovered from the room and from Emerald herself.

"A blaster and a neural whip, along with some cleverly hidden explosives that appear to just be a string of pearls, and this; its a comm receiver, working on a random and rotating frequency. We found it in her ear, and it was nearly invisible. Almost missed it. We cant match the changing frequencies with our own communications system, but we have been able to patch it in so that we can at least hear any transmissions they make. I assume there is a communicator that goes with this, but we havent found it."

As the Captain turned back to face Quietus, he found that the Sith's gaze was locked on something on the table. The Captain had to take a second look at the table to figure out that Quietus' gaze was stuck on the neural whip that the team had confiscated from Emerald. His gaze didnt waver in the slightest, but his mood did seem to darken. Just as Kira was about to ask a question, Quietus spoke first.

"Captain, I want you to keep control of this situation. Not a single guest is to know what is going on, or this will be your last job. I wish to 'talk' with our captive, right now. Karys, it is time for your second test; I want you to find the fugitive Chiss woman and bring her to me. Do not tip off any of the guests, and bring her to me alive. or you will join her in death. She will join her accomplice in the brig whether she wishes to or not. Captain, see to it that my apprentice has all the information he needs, and continue your own efforts. Tell me instantly if there is any activity on that comm device."

Quietus' mood was about as foul as it could get in those moments, having seen a specter of his own history sitting on that table. He said nothing else before pushing past the Captain, grabbing the neural whip, and storming off the bridge, leaving everyone behind rather perplexed. Captain Kira for one, watched Quietus leave, staring at the doors as they closed behind him before turning to Karys, the full weight of the Sith's threats hitting him. He now had to deal with not just one, but two Sith, and offered Karys a fairly weak smile before turning his attention to giving the Massassi all the information he might need to track down the Chiss.

===============================================================================

By the time that Quietus had made his way down to the holding cell from the bridge, a good ten minutes had passed since the ghost of his past, a glimmer of a life that he was never allowed to live, had shown up in the most unlikeliest of moments. The neural whip, which Quietus now held in his hand as he walked, was not something that he had expected to ever see again. But holding it now as he was, he knew instantly that his suspicions about its previous owner were true. He had known the person who once held this weapon, the person for whom this weapon was crafted. He had known her perhaps better, and deeper, than he had ever known someone else before Darth Eris came along. And now, with Eris having run off on her own journey, Quietus was left alone with the specter of the past.

The fact that the person who had infiltrated his ship, the person who had been captured and was now sitting in a holding cell, had brought this weapon on board was far too much of a coincidence. A fair amount of the journey from the bridge to the brig was lost in the one feeling that Quietus had long thought gone; hope. Hope that the person sitting in the holding cell would be the person that he had long thought dead, and long forced out of his mind and his thought. But even that hope fell prey to Quietus' higher reasoning skills; she was dead, and had been so for longer than Quietus had cared to think about until now. And so by the time that he arrived outside the brig, Quietus hope had curled and soured into anger and rage. In his haste, and in his careless recollection of the past, he had forgotten just what he was dealing with. A woman had invaded his ship, had plotted force knows what, and had come into possession of a relic of the past. There was enough reason to feel hatred and anger without the whip, but with the weapon came an extra layer of the negative emotions.

Upon arriving, Quietus decided to take no chances with the person held within, Just outside the door, he checked all of his weapons, stashing them in a security locker and sealing it with an encryption password algorithm that would likely take days to crack. His black lightsaber, the only relic of his former Master and friend Barohm Zar; his white lightsaber, crafted shortly after Quietus was granted the rank of Master to compliment Zar's lightsaber; The Warhammer, formerly owned by Kakuto Ryu and then stolen from Cloud City, wrapped in the flesh of the then Jedi Grandmaster; Torch, Quietus' modified charric carbine; even Navemiba. his hidden chained blade; all were stowed away, leaving Quietus carrying only the neural whip.

With his weapons stored, there was little if anything that could identify him as a Sith, let alone a force user. He would appear to merely be a man wearing dark robes, and that suited Quietus just fine for the time being. The anger and the rage that Quietus was feeling continued to stew just below the surface as he punched the door controls, and entered the holding cell that Emerald had been tossed into after he failed escape. There was little light in the holding cell, casting faint shadows across the room. And there, crumpled on the floor near one of the back corners, was what remained of Emerald. Her jewelry, her weapons, even her fancy dress had all been taken from her in the initial arrest due to the security force's findings. In the time since the initial search, she had been further stripped of everything else in the pursuit of efficiency; they had no clue what else she might be hiding. And so when Quietus arrived, he found a woman curled up in the corner, having nothing to protect her but a single sheet that had been issued to her by command of the Captain, who had apparently taken the slightest bit of pity on her and her modesty.

Darth Quietus however, cared nothing for her modesty or her dignity. He paused for only a moment to look her over as the door closed behind him before he crossed the room to her. She was still feeling the effects of the stun blast and subsequent drugging once in custody, and was barely conscious, if at all. And so, still holding the neural whip in one hand, reached down with the other, dragged her from the ground, propped her limp body into the corner, and took a step back. With no immediate reaction or response, he did the only thing left to do; attempt to wake her from her stupor.

Rearing back, Quietus slapped the woman with enough force to wake her, or at least clear away a good portion of the fog clouding her conscious mind. Only when she began to stir did he speak, his voice tempered slightly, carrying with it a tone of command and impatience.

"Wake up little pixie, its time for your interrogation."

When Emerald came too, the first thing she would see would be the face of Quietus, rage and anger behind his eyes, and grinning like the wicked madman that he truly was.

Muffled voices. Dank chill. Pain. Excruciating, exquisite, exorbitant pain. Somewhere, in the depths of the part of Emerald's brain that still functioned, she dimly wondered if she was drunk. The vague sensation of nakedness, the pounding in her head, and the distant smell of urine all contributed to the conclusion that she was reliving that day on Ryloth. She had been in the cantina, waiting on a load of glitterstim to come from one of the local ryll dens, and had gotten rather carried away on a particular brew of black membrosia. The story wouldn't quite come to mind when it was called for, but Emerald groggily recalled that it had something to do with the Rodian senator, a smuggler under pay of the Hutts, a gundark, and a drunken Weequay. She laughed in spite of the throbbing that filled her ears and squelched her senses, then she heard the distant hiss and clang that meant a cell door was being opened.

A cell door? But that would mean...

Shavit, she cursed inwardly. It was all flooding back now, and with the memories, the girl desperately hoped she would feel the return of her clothing and weapons once she regained consciousness.

Not a chance. Her eyes refused to open even as she heard the footsteps approaching. A rough hand seized her by the neck and lifted her partway off the ground. Panic kicked in and she squirmed, attempting to free herself from her captor's iron grip as he--presumably it was a man, based on his incredible strength--dragged her along the unforgiving, icy metallic bulkhead. All thought to maintaining some deficienc semblance of coolly controlled modesty fled, and her hands found his as she struggled to pry his fingers away, when he abruptly released her, further confusing her sense of equilibrium. She tumbled away into the corner, still struggling to open her eyes, when a stinging blow caught her across the cheek and she yelped involuntarily.

Then the voice came. Dark. Menacing. And yet, oddly enough, Emerald thought she could detect the slightest hint of interest. Whether that was interest in her, or simply in her activities, she didn't know. Then again, she could have been very, very mistaken.

"Wake up, little pixie, it's time for your interrogation."

Slowly, painfully, she peeled her eyelids apart. And immediately wished she hadn't. The rather impressive male figure before her wore dark and nondescript robes and carried her whip in his hand. His eyes were deep pools of darkness, his face an obscenely malicious mask that channeled a mirthless grin.

Emerald decided with an air of regret in that moment that she was not, in fact, drunk. Too bad. So, how to continue? This man wasn't security. In the tiny place in the back of her mind, she detected the faint tingle that whispered promises of a hidden power that was brimming inside of this man. In theory, she had found her Sith contact. Lying would be fruitless: she didn't have the confidence to try a mental block against this man. So, she'd play along, and use what was available to her.

Cocking her head to the side fractionally, she let herself afford the tiniest little grin. Not quite enough to be smug, but enough to communicate the one idea coursing through her mind: I'll play along.

She pulled the sheet up to her chin in a false display of girlish embarrassment, her cheeks taking on a delicate pink hue as she engaged her Falleen pheromones, which, while certainly not strong enough in her watered-down blood to be of much effect against a Force-user, couldn't hurt her chances. "That wasn't nice, I was napping," she responded, her voice a throaty and seductive charade. Truth be told, she wasn't all too afraid of him, though she was slightly apprehensive about how to go about this critical conversation. At this point, she'd just need to give him what he wanted, and then be concerned about her agenda...which included getting off this flying circus.

The tiny little grin that crossed the face of the woman before him did nothing to improve Quietus' mood. She was, at least, responsive and alert enough, but he knew instantly that this woman was outmatched when it came to dealing with him. Still, he looked at her face, as if attempting to discern something before he again reached up, the same sadistic grin on his face, and clamped his hand around her neck once more, sliding her up the wall so that her feet were off the ground. And with that move, the grin disappeared entirely, as if it was never there.

"If you expect anything close to 'nice' from me, you are going to be extremely disappointed. No... For you, I do believe I will be far from nice. I believe the word you'll be searching for is... sadistic."

The entire time, Quietus' grip on her neck tightened as he spoke. It never quite came to the point of choking the woman, but it would certainly be uncomfortable and make breathing that much more difficult, and it was certain to bruise if he kept it up. In the meantime, his other hand gripped the neural whip even tighter as the reality of the situation fully laid itself upon his mind. There had been hope, which he had pushed aside; hope that perhaps the intruder would be the owner of the whip, the specter of Quietus' past that he had long given up for dead. But such a person was just an echo of a whisper by now. But despite that fact, the knowledge that he still held even the slightest bit of hope that she would return only served to fuel the enraged fire that was brewing beneath his cold exterior.

"Now then, lets get started... Shall we?"

Without even waiting for an answer, Quietus unceremoniously let go of her neck, dropping her to the ground in the corner and turned, walking halfway across the cell before turning again.

"I'll make it easy for you; I'll tell you what I know, that way you can save yourself the trouble of lying to me. I know you came here disguised as "Jenna Farlander", the wealthy and spoiled daughter of some moisture farmer on Tatooine. I also know you didnt come here alone; you brought a lovely little Chiss female with you as well. Posing as a bodyguard if I remember correctly. And I know that you were planning a very elaborate job, quite possibly a robbery of one or all of the casinos here, judging by the amount of explosives you were carrying around on you. So lets just jump to the important questions; Who are you, and why are you on my ship."

As he spoke, he allowed the neural whip to uncoil from his hand and snake to the floor below, and then began pacing the room slightly, putting the whip on full display. Whether this woman knew it or not, Quietus knew exactly how to use the whip; perhaps he knew some ways to use it that she did not. Either way, he would not leave the room, much less let her go until he had all the answers he wanted, or she ended up dead. For Quietus, it didnt matter all that much. If all went according to plan, Karys would make short work of capturing the Chiss, and then Quietus could interrogate her as well.

It was all Emerald could do to keep her hands away from massaging her throat. Her windpipe burned like someone had sprayed acid down her larynx. But it was a sign of weakness, and in the interest of greater self-preservation, she couldn’t afford to show weakness. She had to be pliable, but not stretched: firm, but not breakable. So she wouldn’t make this harder than it had to be for anyone involved. Plus, after his brute rage, it was easy to imagine that this man was someone who took himself seriously enough to actually inflict lasting damage. As she watched him trailing the whip, which had gone active, writhing like a serpent, she began to have the slightest sensation of faltering confidence. She had thought to be the only one to have unlocked the secrets of this relic of the Chaos gods. Even the woman she had, well, borrowed the whip from hadn’t been able to tell her how the thing worked. And he brandished it like such knowledge was as commonplace as the well-known fact that you don’t cheat a Wookiee at dejarik. The sneaking feeling that she was in over her head was now a full-fledged fight-or-flight response.

Yet, in the well-practiced hardness of a seasoned smuggler, the grin on her face didn’t falter, even after her interrogator had lost his. Losing her composure in this cell would be tantamount to losing herself. He wanted to dance, she would dance with him.

“I’m afraid you’ve gotten a bit of misinformation,” she rasped coolly.  “As for my name, you can call me Em. My lovely, quite dangerous, Chiss friend is really of no concern to you; she came at my request. And if you’ll quit trying to stop me from breathing, I’ll skip complaining that I haven’t done anything wrong and you have no precedent for keeping me detained, and happily explain to you why I’m here.” Unswervingly, she met his gaze, even as her throat threatened to close. She continued on without pausing in the hopes that this would dissuade any violent reaction from the man.   

“I am a member of a small, rather self-interested organization that has recently garnered the attention of some people that we’d rather avoid.” Her eyes flickered to the floor before turning back up to him, and her tiny grin turned into a proud mask as she considered the successes of the elite Blood Gems. “We’re small because we like to be invisible.”   

Hesitation filled her before she went on. If this man was not who she thought he might be, revealing her motivations for coming here would be stupid, if not fatal. If he was, the danger increased, but so did the potential gain.    

But odds had never thrilled her anyways.   

"I’ll level with you,” she said, folding her arms across her bare chest. “The explosives, the setup, the pseudonyms: they were all a cover story. In case of any unwanted police attention, we would have been another disorganized band of thugs; clever, but not worth any consideration higher up than local security.”    

Dragging her gaze slowly and strategically up and down the man’s profile, she locked eyes with him once more. “And you are certainly more than local security,” she said, showing him that she had not, in fact, missed his claim that the Gambit belonged to him. Her Cheshire grin vanished, to be replaced with cold daggers of intent in her eyes. “We came because of a rumor that there was a Sith Lord running the show around here. I’ve got red in my ledger, and it’s attracted a little more scrutiny than I’m comfortable with. I came to make a trade.”    

Letting the words hang in the air for a moment, Emerald clenched her jaw, and the corner of one side of her mouth twitched. Now, to see if her gambit aboard the Gambit would, in fact, pay off.

As Emerald spoke, Quietus continued to pace around the room with the whip in his hand. His gaze never left her, his eyes almost burning through her as he read every subtlety that she attempted to hide. But reading this one was more than just a task of picking up on visual cues, and it was only through the Force that he sensed the well hidden change in her confidence level as he began casually demonstrating his knowledge of the neural whip. She was however, far better than he expected at keeping her cool, especially if she truly believed her own suspicions. He was smart enough to know that his involvement in the Shadow's Gambit was not going to remain a secret for long, especially from someone who went digging for such things. The fact that the information that Emerald had received had been limited to just a Sith in general was a small measure of victory in that regard.

"Oh, so you say your Chiss friend is of no concern to me? Interesting, so then, she wasnt the one to plant a signal blocker and scrambler in those quarters? She wasnt the one who decided to hotwire her way out of the garbage disposal? She wasnt the one who stole the keycards of my technician? She wasnt the one who has hidden herself on my ship with heavens knows what else? Very well then. I suppose that must have all been you..."

His words had become increasingly filled with darkness and anger as he spoke, but seemed to cool at the last second. It was, of course, just Quietus being the evil bastard that he was; without warning he lashed out, bringing the neural whip to crack through the air and lashing around her ankles with enough force to sting. But as if to add insult to injury, Quietus just as quickly pulled back on the whip, effectively pulling the blonde's legs out from under her as she slammed into the cold hard ground.

"No no my dear... Your Chiss friend is most definitely a concern to me and my crew given what she has already done. If she came at your request, then her capture and torture will be on your hands. If she has no nefarious purpose here, then why did she run from my security officers? As for your true purpose here..."

He turned again away from her, dragging the whip with him as he began to coil it up in his gauntlet once more. He walked to the other end of the room, where the door was and peeked out the small reinforced window that was there before turning back around to face the prisoner again.

"You snuck onto my ship, because you were following rumors of a Sith Lord? What did you think you could curry? Favor? Asylum? From a Sith Lord? Did you believe a Sith would hear your plea, and fall down to his knees, begging to help you? Either you and your 'small self-interested organization' are completely mental, or you are beyond desperate to consider such things. Which reminds me..."

Quietus dug into his robes and produced a commlink, which he then keyed on and spoke.

"Captain, I do believe all of our guests are aboard, are they not?"

"Yes sir."

"Then lets get moving, these people payed for a space cruise, not an endless view of Coruscant."

"Yes Sir!"

Quietus smiled his wicked smile and tucked the commlink back into his robes before turning his attention back to Emerald, gesturing widely.

"Just in case any more of your 'organization' attempt to get on my ship without real documents. I would hate to have to hold you responsible for the actions of any of your other 'friends'. As for your goal, I would say you have attracted a great deal more scrutiny than you even came here with. Unless you always end up naked in a dark room being interrogated? If so, I would wager a Sith wouldnt want anything to do with you at this point."

The fact that Quietus was indeed the very Sith that Emerald was looking for was a point of amusement for the Sith; Unless he flat out admitted it, or showed signs of being a Sith, she would never know for sure. As long as he didnt use the Force, or openly display a lightsaber, he would simply be a very, very, sadistic and evil man who was skilled in combat, in a leadership role of a giant space casino.

"Tell me little pixie, what proof do you have that a Sith is even involved with my ship?"

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

Captain Kira had finished giving the Massassi the information he required, and as a note of personal pride, had managed to avoid making two Sith angry at him in the same day. Of course, having the first scare was enough to cause the Captain to consider himself on thin ice and thus was extra careful to not do anything or say anything that might cause a reaction from Quietus' apprentice. He was beginning to read the latest security report, scanning it for any news related to the fugitive on the ship, when the comm system pinged for him.

"Captain, I do believe all of our guests are aboard, are they not?"

Quietus' voice came through, stern and commanding enough to actually cause Captain Kira to have a chill run down his back before he responded.

"Yes sir."

"Then lets get moving, these people payed for a space cruise, not an endless view of Coruscant."

"Yes Sir!"

The Captain turned to navigation, where the young officer was already beginning to complete the command that he knew was coming. The Captain merely nodded as the man looked up before glancing back down and responding.

"All the shuttles have departed the docking bay, and Coruscant Control has cleared us to leave orbit. I have the first jump already keyed up, shall I initiate the jump to hyperspace?"

"As soon as we are clear Ensign. I am eager to get this trip under way."

The Ensign nodded, and a few seconds later the dull roar of the engines could be heard throughout the ship, as the Shadow's Gambit began to turn and pull away from the planet's gravity. At the same time, Captain Kira made his way to the comm station, and after keying in his access code, opened up the comm system to the entire ship.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Captain Jacob Kira. First let me welcome you to this, the maiden voyage of the Shadow's Gambit. I want to thank you all for being here, as we have a full passenger compliment today. As you can no doubt tell, we are pulling out of our orbit over Coruscant, and will be making the first of our many jumps to hyperspace as we cruise around the galaxy in style. Again, I want to thank you for your presence here with us over the next two weeks, and I wish you all a pleasant trip with us."

Exactly thirty seconds after the Captain's transmission, the Shadow's Gambit made its first jump to hyperspace, leaving Coruscant behind.

Looking up at her interrogator from flat on her back, Emerald propped herself up onto her elbows, then sat up slowly, deigning to remain on the ground as he ordered the ship to hyperspace. Shassa. This would mean that Sapphire, had she not already boarded the ship, was stuck on Coruscant. The transmitter of the comm firmly fixed to her rear molar had gone undiscovered, as she knew it would, but her earpiece was gone. The most she could hope to do would be to get a message out to her compatriots, but the chance of a reply had drifted beyond her grasp. If the hacker hadn’t managed to board the ship in time—but no, Emerald thought, she couldn’t worry about Sapphire. If the man was telling the truth, Ruby had escaped the grasp of the security team and was hidden somewhere on the ship. She would have to be the one to find a way out of this for all of them. At the present moment, Emerald needed to worry about herself.

Her ankles still stung from the touch of the whip, its conductor switch obviously set to inflict pain rather than induce pleasure. The man wasn’t waiting for responses to his questions, which limited the amount of information she could give him. But if that was the way he wanted it, that was fine with her. She wasn’t going to broach the subject of Ruby’s presence again; it would be in her best interest to keep the Chiss out from under scrutiny for as long as possible, in case this conversation didn’t end well. His taunting was beginning to wear at her nerves, but she would fight tooth and nail to the end not to show it. Gritting her teeth, she raised an eyebrow as she responded.

“I’m here because I chose to be here,” she ground out harshly in an attempt to temper the pain from her legs, “and you’d be a fool to think otherwise.”

This was deliberate baiting, one that she was fairly sure would end in pain for her, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Calling a man with an exotic weapon a fool was not exactly a wise choice of action. But on the hopes that this man was at least somehow connected to a Sith that was running the show around here, she would play it cool until she could actually believe he was telling the truth to the contrary.  

“I have a source, an old friend who works at the Drive Yards of Kuat, who gave some pretty juicy details about a man who came to pick up the ship by himself. Flying any ship larger than a starfighter by yourself is often a feat, but a capital ship normally crewed by thousands?“ She snorted derisively, shaking her head. ”You’ll understand if I don’t reveal the name of my source. Business is business, after all.”  

She was glaring at him now, all pretense of seduction gone. “And if you’re meaning to tell me that this is simply standard policy for how this ship’s security is supposed to deal with stray blaster bolts, falsified identicards, illegal transmitters, and drunken technicians, you’ll believe me when I say it won’t be long before CoreSec gets wind of this and blows your ass from here to Commenor.”

She folded her arms again and looked from him to the whip meaningfully as she continued. “We pulled this job against my best judgment, because I have information that would be valuable to anyone who calls himself a Sith. Especially someone who knows how to use esoteric heirloom weapons taken from pretty little Jedi girls.”

Emerald narrowed her eyes, calculating, measuring. “If that information is of no value, by all means seal me in an escape pod and drop me into deep space. If, however, the Sith in charge thinks it worth his attention, I’m willing to trade that information, as well as the services of my organization, for our security.”

"Of course you're here because you chose to be here," he nearly laughed back as she spoke harshly. Clearly Quietus' interrogation was getting to her.

"I would indeed be a fool to think someone like you would have been coerced to pull a stupid stunt like this."

The woman was clearly attempting to cause the same cracks that Quietus had begun exposing in her own defense. But for Quietus, who was the one in control of the situation, such deliberate baiting only ended in his amusement as he chuckled. Sticks and stones.... he thought to himself, recalling the old childrens parable. As she began recounting her information and source regarding Sith involvement in the Shadow's Gambit, Quietus anger was increasingly losing the battle with the sheer amount of amusement he was getting from watching her, in her audacity, attempt to stand up to him. In response, Quietus was no longer pacing the room, instead coming to a stop in the middle and standing there, arms crossed, with the whip still wrapped around his gauntlet. Only then did he show his amusement, as his face cracked into a smile once more.

"Well little pixie, you need to get new sources. I was the one who picked up the ship from the Kuat Drive Yards... But I was far from alone. If I were you, I wouldnt admit to using that source ever again; I dont blame you for withholding their name from me. It doesnt matter anyway; whoever your informant is, they clearly are not on par with real sources of information. And no, this is far from simple standard security policy; but then again, Im not ship's security, as you already know. I am the owner of this ship; I do whatever the hell I please on this ship. You are the one who decided to pilfer a stateroom that the Hutt Cartel had purchased for one of their top enforcers. Now, because of you, that enforcer is dead and a job has gone unfinished, all because you decided to play pirate. CoreSec? They're the ones who helped me build this luxury liner; they're the ones who run Kuat Drive Yards these days. They're the ones who took down the Hutt enforcer you displaced. And considering your little informant broke the binding contract I had with CoreSec to keep the building of this ship a secret, they wont even breathe in my direction now. They have enough reason to leave me alone already."

The comment about the neural whip however, came the closest to cracking Quietus' facade, but it took only a fraction of a second to recover and realize that she was stretching; reaching for something to grasp onto. Quietus had dealt with those demons a long time ago, and knew now how to play his cards. He looked down to the whip, coiled around his gauntlet, and looked at it again; perhaps fully examining it for the first time. To a point, he could still feel her presence somewhere within the whip, and that was enough.

"Pretty little Jedi girls you say?" He spoke, still looking at it and examining it, "You took this from a Jedi? You, who from what I hear, tripped over your own shoe and got captured by men who were fairly normal? I guess you used up all your luck getting this little toy from her."

Quietus laughed once more at the thought of this woman, a self described criminal element, having run out of luck to the point that a mere shoe brought her here facing his wrath. She had been sporting so far, and so he would give her the smallest nibble of the truth that she was so desperate to find. And so when he was done laughing his evil laugh, he regarded her stubborn face and nodded.

"Well, perhaps you havent completely run out of luck; I happen to know a Sith. He was with me when I picked up this ship from Kuat; probably where your so called informant got his wild story from. He's an apprentice to some powerful Sith Master as far as I know; an individual that I managed to hire for security purposes while I was negotiating the deal with CoreSec. He is however, no longer aboard the ship; he departed when we were orbiting Talus; something about wanting to 'see the handiwork of his ancestors' and all that. He's not a full Sith Lord by any means, but im sure if you're information really is as valuable as you say, he'll pass it along to his Master."

Quietus moved to pull out the comlink once more, but then paused and looked back at Emerald.

"For your sake, I hope your information is genuine. Sith dont tend to take disappointment well. As for your 'trade'; Im afraid you're going to have to deal with me if you hope to get out of this cell anytime soon. I'd be happy to relay your information to my Sith contact."

The wicked grin of Quietus returned, one that could easily be mistaken for the grin of a merchant who saw profit.

"In the meantime, why dont you regal me with the story of how you managed to take this whip from a Jedi. I'd love to hear it..."

Emerald’s lip quirked into a crooked smile once again. Stripped naked and thrown in a cold, bare cell; captured despite the extensive combat and stealth training she had received; and now her informant proved false; he certainly had arrows in his quiver to use against her. He was obviously mocking her, baiting her in the same way she had baited him, and the realization moved her beyond his affectation. His amusement at her expense should have irritated her, but at this point she was happy to be alive and relatively unharmed. Her dignity would recover more easily than any wounds inflicted at the hand of this man.   

His curiosity about her history with the legendary weapon in his hand was seemingly ephemeral: so much so, that the lithe blonde began to wonder if it wasn’t forced. After all, this was the wealth of her information, and if it were to be passed on to a Sith Master under any circumstance, and Emerald given what she wanted, it would be worth it. So, with her roguish grin mirroring his predatory smirk, she decided to humor him.   

“Oh, I’m happy to tell you the story. But if you want any of the cold hard current facts, you’ll have to do better than vague promises about a friend of a friend who happens to be a Sith Master.” She raised an eyebrow in an overplayed smirk. “It’s simply not good business otherwise.”

Leaning her head back against the cell wall, she crossed her legs and folded her arms, looking as relaxed as it was possible to be under the circumstances. “It’s not hard to take toys away from anyone when they’re comatose,” she scoffed. “My father’s a Hapan physician. Seven or eight years ago, a pair of Jedi stumbled into his hospital, desperate for medical attention. I happened to be visiting at the time. She was having a baby, but something was wrong, and she kept going unconscious. Weak-seeming for a Jedi, don’t you think? She should have just been able to fix things. Jedi are supposed to be that powerful.” She laughed brashly.  

“Anyway, I had come to visit my father that day, as I was being sent away for schooling and wanted to say goodbye. He was in with the woman, delivering the child, and all of her things had been laid out on a table just inside the door. Notably, she had a lightsaber, a crystal necklace, and that curious-looking whip. Naturally, I took interest in it, and decided that my need was greater than hers. What can I say? Pirate runs in my blood.”  

She regarded him coolly in the next moment, pausing. “Of course, what happened to the poor Jedi girl, her sensitive husband, and their little fetal miracle is a sealed chapter. I open that chapter when you give me what I want. Namely, my freedom, my protection, and an open channel to the Sith handlers that I’m confident you have.”