Keshani and Trax: Prisoners

[GM Craig]

Trax is thoroughly searched and all his weapons and power packs are confiscated. His blast vest is stripped, and stun cuffs are placed on his wrists while his elbows are bound by a tether. Trussed up, twenty royal guards lead him away. His last look at Collan was seeing his haughty face locked forward, completely ignoring his former allies, as he walked with every appearance of calm towards the throne room.

In front of Trax, the limp form of Keshani is being carried. The former (likely once again) slave is being carried over the shoulder of a guard like a sack of flower. A silly error, forgetting your gun was on stun. But she didn't know that - the girl had fully intended to die there on the deck, by her own hand. Through all that Trax had been through in his life, one thing he had never done was stop surviving. You fought when you could, and bode your time when the fight was not winnable. He had never considered ending the struggle, and it was troubling that Keshani had been prepared to do that.

Had tried to do that, he mentally corrected himself.

Trax enters a large open area, and sees some free-standing detention cells ahead of him. Immediately, he recognizes Senator Organa, Senator Mothma and Senator bel-Iblis. There was the old blind Jedi there as well, apparently still alive. The old man turned his sightless gaze towards Trax, and seems to see him despite his lack of eyes.

Trax is shoved un-gently into a holding cell, and the energy barrier is engaged, separating him from the rest of the world. Then the stun cuffs are activated, and Trax is forced to his knees from the pain.

Keshani, still unconscious, is taken to the opposite cell and tossed without a care onto the floor. Her head his hard, but the guard does not care, and activates the security field.

Most of the guards depart at this point, though half a dozen remain to guard the prisoners.

A chuckle draws Trax's attention, and he sees over a large expanse of open area, Collan kneeling before a figure in a dark robe. They are too far away to hear anything being said, but Collan is kneeling in what appears to be supplication.

[Actions / reactions?]

The pain from the cuffs is severe, but you can speak or gesture / make facial expressions. The guards will hear any spoken words.

[Trax]

Trax stared at the unconscious form of Keshani for some time.  Part of him felt he'd failed her, just like he'd failed Mariah.  The only reason Kesh wasn't dead was because her pistol was set to stun.  But he hadn't failed her.  Surrender didn't mean the battle was lost, it just meant it was time to change tactics.  It was never an easy choice, it meant all other options were gone and you had to submit yourself fully to the enemy, but the alternative was never an option in his mind.  What had such a young girl gone through to make that alternative an option?

His thoughts shifted to Nim.  What had become of her?  He'd been escorted out before he was able to learn of her fate.  Was she lying unconscious somewhere too?  Or worse, was she being interrogated?  How could he have been so stupid.  The discrepancy in life signs should have been a dead give away.  This wasn't the first time they'd come across imperial cells filled with imperial troopers.

His eyes glanced briefly towards Collan.  If she dies, so do you he thought.  Actually check that, your dead regardless.  The young man's deception had by all accounts been flawless.  Trax had never given the man a second thought.  Now he was giving Collan a lot of thoughts, and if any of them came to pass the bastard would die slowly and painfully.

The man's gaze shifted to the troopers and his eyes hardened.  And you'll die too.  But it'll be quick.  Someway, somehow, the opportunity would present itself and he would kill them, with his bare hands if necessary.  The man was seething at this point.  It would pass in time, giving way to cold, calculated, thoughts and plans, he knew that well enough.  But for now he found purpose and comfort in his anger.

Finally he turned towards the senators.

"If we get out of this," he said through the pain.  "We're going to have to work on how you screen your friends."

[GM Craig]

Bail Organa is the closest. "If we get out of this, we'll welcome your suggestions. How did you find us way out here?"

Beside Trax, Keshnai starts to stir, and her eyes open.

[Trax]

"With the right motivation you'd be surprised at what people can, and will do." Trax half answered before turning to see Keshani.  He let out half a sigh of relief, the other half cut off by the pain from the stun cuffs.

"For example.  Right now I'm feeling pretty motivated to make the inside of some trooper helmets match the color on the outside."

[OOC: Are the stun cuffs always applying pain?

And are the troopers outside just carrying force pikes or do they have side arms as well?]

[Keshani]

.....and slowly, very slowly, the teenage girl became aware of her body. First to register was the searing pain in her head. It felt almost like it wanted to split in two. Or maybe it was split in two. She didn't really want to find out which was correct.

Second to register was the cold floor that was pressed against her body holding her up.

She groaned a bit, not really wanting to open her eyes.

Then, suddenly, her eyes shot open and she sat up in an absolute panick.

The last thing she remembered was holding a blaster to her head and pulling the trigger. At least she THOUGHT she had...

But....

Frantically she looked around, her heart pounding in her chest.

She almost threw up as the cold, hard realization of where she was hit her.

No, she wasn't dead. Somehow she wasn't dead.

Where she was was much much worse.

Living Hell had returned.....

She fought the very strong urge to vomit and instead curled up into as much of a ball as she could (her body wasn't exactly cooperating very well) against the back corner of the cell, trying to withstand the sudden torrent of emotions that was threatening to tear her apart:

Frustration - she had been so close to getting out of here!!
Anger - at believing there might actually have been a chance to escape, to have something of a "normal" life again. She should have known better.
Despair - she knew they would keep to their promise from before and make sure she kept living, only to live out each day in absolute, utter misery....
Desperation - she needed to find some way to finish what she had started before, but obviously had botched. She could not keep living the life they had in mind for her. And they would make sure as hell that she never had a chance to escape again....

There should have been fear. She waited for it to hit her. But it didn't come. What did she have to be afraid of? She had already tried to kill herself. Apparently she couldn't even do THAT correctly. What did she have left to fear?

She waited for the tears to come. But they didn't come either. She was spent. She had no emotions left. Just...calm acceptance that she was not willing to continue to live this way. She would not allow herself to go back to the Living Hell....

Slowly, more calm this time she turned her head to take in her surroundings. It was cold and glowed with the orange light from an energy field. She could hear other voices nearby.

Trax.

She curled even more tightly into a ball (or at least she tried).

What would he possibly think of her now?

A few slow tears did come to her eyes at that. She still didn't understand why he seemed to care so much about her, but it seemed apparent that he did.

She didn't want to look at him, to see his reaction.

Instead she focused her attention on studying the cell that she was in and the surrounding area, trying to remember anything that she could about two things:

1) The very unlikely possibility that there WAS a way to get out. Or at least help Trax to get out, so he could finish the mission they had come here to complete

and

2) Any way that she could finish what she had started with the Blaster. She was NOT going back to being a slave. She couldn't....

[GM Craig]

[OOC: Are the stun cuffs always applying pain?
And are the troopers outside just carrying force pikes or do they have side arms as well?]

Yes, though the pain increases depending on the movement you're making. Standing still makes them generate a mile discomfort.

They all carry Force Pikes, though they have sidearms as well.

[Trax]

OOC: Is there a limit to how much pain they cause?  Example, if I use a force point, does their damage then equal Trax's new strength?

[GM Craig]

OOC: Is there a limit to how much pain they cause?  Example, if I use a force point, does their damage then equal Trax's new strength?

[OOC: You'd need to experiment to find out.]

[Trax]

OOC: Trax didn't pack his white lab coat or safety goggles for this mission.

[Keshani]

Ooc: safety goggles are overrated

[Trax]

Trax watched as Keshani woke up and quickly balled herself up.

"I don't know what you've been through but it's not over yet.  You've got to believe me on that."

Trax let out a sound that was something between a grunt and a growl as he tried to push through the pain and stand up.

[Keshani]

The girl slowly looked up at Trax but stayed curled up in a totally defensive position.

"Are you mad at me?", she asked. Her voice was slurring and she looked groggy but her voice was calm, almost flat.

[Trax]

"If I was mad at you you wouldn't have to ask." Trax replied to Keshani as he tried to stand.  It took some time while he learned how quickly he could move before the pain stopped him.

Finally standing up right he took at look at his surroundings and the situation.

[OOC: How far are we from the throne itself, how big are the cells, and how spread out are the guards?]

[GM Craig]

[OOC: Guards are every 10 m or so. You're a good 100m from the throne. Only guards in sight are the ones watching you.]

[Trax]

Trax began to slowly move about his cell trying to formulate a plan.  Something that struck him as odd, the old blind jedi was locked in here with the rest of them.  Why wasn't he locked up where ever Ch'lana and Niil were taken?  Did Vader consider him that little of a threat?  And if so, why wasn't Niil in here?  Even this old jedi had to be more of a threat than Niil.  The man stopped and looked at the old jedi.

"I've heard some jedi can read other people's thoughts.  What do you suppose these idiots are thinking," Trax indicated the troopers.

"Man I've got an itch I really need to scratch but can't?"

[OOC: Trax is trying to somewhat nonchalantly probe for information on the jedi's skills.]