Collan, Nightshade, Nill, Nim, Trax: Raid on Horuz

[Collan]

Collan nodded as well.

[Nim Naja]

"Escape now, hug later," was all Nim said about the subject as she typed away into her wristcomp. "A dozen troopers on the other side of the door."

[GM Craig]

Ch'lana is calm when he says, "Trax." He indicates Collan, Niil and himself. "We have an obligation to minimize the loss of life. The unconscious troopers were no threat, and by the time they regained consciousness we'd have left them far behind. To your other question - the life of an individual Stormtrooper makes near enough no different in the fight. And while the death of the Emperor would significantly affect the struggle, he is far too powerful for us at this time. And even if he is killed, the Empire war machine would remain a threat. We need an army to defeat them - an army the senators can provide. Even if we had the opportunity to take out the Emperor, I would not take it. Saving the senators is - and must be - our goal."

Ch'lana pauses. "Trax, whatever pain you are trying to salve, killing troopers will not help. The dead are dead and no amount of killing will change that. But there are others with you," he indicated Nim and Keshani, "who are alive. Capable as they are, they are not warriors. I cannot keep everyone safe alone, Trax. They would be safer with another protector, not a killer."

Ch'lana tosses a severe glance at Niil and Collan. He then squeezes Nightshade's shoulder in thanks.

Ch'lana points to the east. "We need to move. More troopers are on the other side of that door. They will get through in moments."

The next leg of the journey is to the west, and there you enter a maintenance passage.

[Keshani]

She waited for the anger and resentment caused by the Jedi's words to hit. She hated the thought of needing a "protector". She hated the thought of being a burden - something someone else needed to take care of.

She hadn't been the responsibility of anyone since almost as far back as she could remember.

She knew that normally this would have bothered her a LOT and she would have hated the Jedi for pointing this out and herself more for the fact that it was true.

The resentment and anger did not come, though.

Ever since she had been lowered down into the turbolift shaft to work on getting the lift up and running she had been aware of her emotions being.....muted. There really wasn't any other way she could describe it other than that. It was like something went inside of her head and just...turned the volume down. So she could concentrate. And separate herself from them.

It was the strangest feeling she had ever had.

So she waited for the emotions to come that once again did not and instead just watched Trax.

She didn't want to interrupt anything that was going on, but she figured it would probably be a good idea to warn the others about the droid that she had encountered. Maybe there was a better way to disable one than shooting it?

So when everyone finished talking she spoke up.

"Um. If we are going into a maintenance passage, is there another way to disable droids other than shooting them? Because the maintenance droids here seem to have instructions to attack on sight and shooting them doesn't seem to work out so well..."

[Nightshade]

"They should be susceptible to the stun setting of your weapon, but that is all I know of them.  Perhaps Nim knows more?"  This seemed like a good time to change the subject and get everyone focused and moving again.  The Shinobi prepared to activate his suit again and scout ahead as before.

Actions: scout the next part of the route.

[Keshani]

"Yeah...that was what I tried last time but then it decided to explode...."

She made a face. She didn't like droids very much in the first place and the thing exploding all over her hadn't helped much to change that impression....

[Niil Spaar]

Niil shrugged, then pointed down the path to the west.  "Once we hit the maintenance passage, I can take the lead after Nightshade."  Suspecting that Keshani might protest, he smiled and said to her, "Trax, Collan and I were special forces, so we've got an edge in combat situations.  We're trained with blasters, and we have body armor.  But we've got to get going now before those bucket-heads get through the doors." 

With that, Niil started heading west down the corridor.

[Trax]

One could almost hear Trax's teeth grinding.

It wasn't about trying to heal pain or change the fate of those who died.  It was about balance, at least as he perceived balance.  He could protect, was protecting Nim and Kesh just fine, as well as insuring their protection by making sure the troopers they encountered would never again post a threat.  To them, or anyone ever again.

He was going to insist that Niil and Collan take the position of rear guard but then Niil spoke up again and began heading down the west corridor.  Fine, if that's the way it was going to be.

"My acceptance will cost all three of you...dearly.  If the lives of the troopers are so important to you then the three of you are responsible for every trooper in front of us.  I will only cover our flank.  And if a single trooper or blaster bolt gets past any of you and hits anyone else, or if any of you decides to voice their sense of morality in my presence again the deaths of a few troopers will the be least of your worries.

Now move."

[Niil Spaar]

Niil kept walking and didn't bother to reply, although he was doing his best to heed Ch'lana's spoken and unspoken warnings.  Right, Trax . . . would you have held yourself up to that same sense of responsibility if a blaster bolt had gotten past you and hit someone else other than Nim or Keshani in the last firefight?  You certainly wouldn't have given a womp rat's left butt cheek if Ch'lana had been blasted to atoms.  No, you probably would've welcomed that.

But Ch'lana's earlier warnings to both Trax, Collan and Niil wasn't just an attempt to defuse Trax and keep his focus on the mission; it was also a warning to Niil to keep his growing anger under control.  The Dark Side was always there, soaking it all in and using it to try and erode Niil's self-control.  Get yourself focused, Niil!  As he went down the corridor, he took in deep, quiet breaths to calm himself down and push the anger and the Dark Side away. 

[Keshani]

Keshani watched warily as the conversation between Niil and Trax continued.

With her emotions not affecting her thinking right now she could see that there were many things going on in play here that she could not even BEGIN to fathom. She hated the Imps who had enslaved her for the past few months. She could clearly see that Trax had an extreme hatred for the Imperials, as well. The others....their reason for being here seemed much more focused on rescuing these "senators", instead of being fueled by revenge or hatred.

And that divide was clearly tearing this group apart.

From what Niil had said, the three of them - Collan, Trax and Niil, at any rate, had worked together before. It sounded like they had even been friends.

But SOMETHING had clearly happened to create a rift in that friendship.

She studied Trax for a minute as Niil and the others began to walk down the corridor.

She felt....conflicted - like she was supposed to take sides somehow.

Nim was very clearly aligned with Trax here. The others seemed to pretty solid on the "other" side - the Jedi's side.

Again some of the things she had heard growing up about the Jedi and how they could control the minds of others, came floating up in her memory.

But Trax....by that last comment of his....it seemed almost as if he was trying to commit some sort of suicide on this mission. Threatening the others like that....And there was something else, as well - The way he reacted to her. Different from everyone else. Almost as if she reminded him of someone else.....

It didn't boad well. Again the idea that SOMETHING was very wrong here went through her mind.

Her emotions were muted. She didn't feel fear. But she did feel....wary; cautious. This rift between the two groups was spreading and the thought occurred to her that THAT may be more dangerous right now than the actual stormtroopers who were shooting at them.

She didn't know what she could do about it right now; Really there wasn't anything TO do. They were much more trained in combat than she was. She couldn't escape the station on her own. She certainly couldn't rescue Danny on her own, although she was starting to have the sinking feeling that just getting THEMSELVES of this station alive would be a feat in itself without adding rescuing another into the mix....

So for right now she would just watch. And try her damnedest to make sure she wasn't caught in whatever internal crossfire would occur between Trax and the rest of the group...


<Actions: Follow in whatever order she is directed to, keeping eyes and ears open for ANY danger or anything that she remembered that could help them>

[Collan]

Collan held Ch'lana's glare. What hed just said to Trax was not substantively different than what came out of Collan's mouth. Perhaps worse. Collan had tried to couch in Trax's interests while Ch'lana had putnit in theirs. None of them: Nightshade, Niil, Ch'lana, nor he had been able to reach the bounty hunter. How far gone was Trax?

He felt the rising heat of anger and annoyance. Ch'lana clearly didn't see Trax's issue either. Nightshade's very gentle intervention didn't. A plea based on Nim and Keshani's interests helped neither. And Ch'lana had the gall to ocularly remonstrate him? Seriously?

And Trax...Collan's first thought was for him to go to hell. But as he was thinking it, he also tried to put himself in the man's shoes. It was hard though. Collan tried a Jedi breathing exercise, one meant to handle combat stress, to bleed the edge off agitation and anxiety.

The Dark Side giggled...or that was how it felt. And Collan knew his feelings now did its bidding. Self-sacrifice? That was how Ch'lana described it. Maybe it should be a letting go of his needs and an acceptance of Trax's real ones-the need to hurt was a symptom. An expression of the need.

"We should move out," he said to all, but to Trax he added, "Look...you're my friend and I'm sorry I got in your way. All I want to do is give you whatever help you want. Okay? I overstepped and I'm sorry."

It was sincere...Collan hoped that a connection and reminder of their friendship would get through. But it was brief, giving Trax no chance to respond or think about it before Collan followed Niil. Blaster in hand.

[Trax]

Trax let out a noise that was something between a huff and a grunt.

"Front of the line." he replied to Collan without even looking at the man.  His tone wasn't as harsh as it had been a moment ago, but whether it was due to Collan's apology or not was anyone's guess.

[OOC: Marching order, Nightshade and the 3 jedi up front, Nim, Kesh and Trax will follow in a tight group, about 3 to 5M behind, with Trax at the rear.]

[Keshani]

Kesh watched, still wary, as Collan spoke with Trax and then Trax ordered Collan up to the front with Niil and the Jedi.

It was obvious that the three of them used to at least get along. What had changed?

And then there was still this....familiarity....that Trax directed toward her. It was....very similar....to how he acted toward Nim in a way, although clearly different, as well.

But she had never met him before. She was sure of that.

What then?

It was almost like how she had acted toward Danny....

Her eyes went wide with surprise at this realization, and despite the mutedness of her emotions her heart started beating a bit faster.

As they started walking she threw a glance back toward him.

"When you look at me who do you see?" she asked calmly.

[Nim Naja]

Nim blinked at the girl as they moved, her rifle at low ready. "Well that isn't oddly specific and personal at all."


"Buzz, do you see anything else up ahead?"

[Keshani]

She was well aware of the fact that normally she would have shrunk back from Nim's words, feeling shame or maybe guilt at having asked. She wasn't good with people and sometimes said the wrong things. Well, actually most of the time. She'd spent most of her life alone and hadn't really had the opportunity to develop "people skills".

She reveled a bit in this new...."Freedom"...that whatever had been done to her (and she had her suspicions that it was the Jedi who was responsible for the "doing) had given to her. It felt...refreshing, in a way.

But now, feeling insulated from her emotions all she did was watch, only flinching slightly at Nim's words, waiting for Trax's answer.