Chapter 3: Archaic

[Mara 29]

He whistled and moved closer to Kaden.

"I think he wants to tag along, if it's okay."

Kaden looked up at the clear sky, letting a breeze wash over him. It had been a long time since he had had free time to spend like this. He took a deep breath and let it go, inhaling scents in the air. His gaze moved over to the estate. "This is a beautiful place."

Edited May 23, 2008 by Mara

[Winters 0]

Space around Altagak Base

Cale Sano departed from the command ship despite the valient efforts of the bases X-Wing defense. There were a few left, straglers that defied the odds and refused to die out. He headed out with a screen of four TIE Interceptors, something rarely seen in the hands of such people as these.

In his heavily motified Lambda shuttle, Cale relaxed for a moment. Thank the Force that I got those Interceptors a few weeks ago, they may have cost me a fortune, but at least they'll serve as a proper escort. He turned to the few that were with him, his own special guard.

They were nothing special. They did not dress fancy, serving as a stark contrast to the suit that Cale wore; they were large and buff, making Cale look small and weak; but most importantly, they knew how to fight, and protect the body of Cale Sano.

"I want you guys one metre around me." He said, looking at them, "I don't want to have to die just because some coward kid hid in a closet and deciding to go all Commando on me!" They all nodded. He turned around and looked at the space station, wondering what he will see there, hoping to find what he's looking for.

[Princess 35]

Onboard Space Gem on route to Ryloth

Nima was looking forward to some time with her clan and some time to recuperate after the last mission went so horribly wrong. The past few weeks were mainly a blur for Nima. It started with nothing but red and the memories of the 12 hour long OR session on Szen.

There was blood everywhere, Szen was losing her blood so fast, that Nima and the droid staff could cauterize every would before the long process of amputating what was left of her arm. It smelled like so much meat and Nima was having trouble concentrating because she was remembering the small amount of time that she'd spent with Szen and she didn't want to fail her new friend, but it looked like Szen's life was about to become a new life full of cybernetics. She finally got the bleeding under control and found viable nerves that the cybernetics staff would be able to use. She closed the wound and sealed a bacta capsule around the site so that she could focus on Szen's other major wound.

Her face had been hit hard, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst injury was the piece of shrapnel sticking out of Szen's right eye. Nima set to work removing the shrapnel and was disappointed when she realized that the eye would not be able to be saved. She spent hours repairing the bone structure around the orbit of the eye so that an implant could be fitted after Szen's stint in the bacta tank. After picking out all the shrapnel embedded all over Szen's body, Nima was finally ready to turn her over to the healing power of bacta. Szen would have to be in the tank for at least a week.

Nima's next memory was of blackness. After getting out of surgery, she meant to go find Brier to thank her for the help, but after stopping by her own quarters to change into something that wasn't soaked in blood, Nima crashed and slept for a standard day.

Then there was travel. When Szen was stable Nima got a medical transport to Starfighter Command from Altagak base so that Szen could get more specialized medical care. Nima had accompanied Szen to Coruscant, since the rest of the squadron was just suffering from the normal aches and pains of a mission and were big boys and girls.

Nima had spent the week that Szen was in bacta on Coruscant. She put in an order for some new medical supplies to be shipped out to the Revenants and then attended a lecture on Advances in Battlefield Medicine.

She remembered the weak smile that she got from Szen when they finally pulled her out of the bacta and Nima told her that she would require cybernetic implants, but that at least she'd live. And next time she needed to remember to run faster!

When Nima finally handed Szen over to the rehab team, she wished Szen luck, and gave Szen her comm channel to reach her if she had any unexpected problem and then went and got on the first transport to Ryloth. She hadn't been home since the time that she got captured by the slavers and it was time to visit family and find some peace in the Floating Rock Gardens.

So here she was on her way to Ryloth and home. She stared out the viewport and realized that they were out of hyperspace and were heading towards Kala'uun spaceport. Her family didn't know that she was coming, so it'd be a nice surprise, but first she was going to the Floating Rock Gardens.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Princess

[Rogue 4]

No sooner had Nat entered the Riamor clan caverns than he was assaulted by a face he hadn't seen in years. The Twi'lek, who was well built, with a lighter blue skin than his own smirked as recognition came over him. He parted from the group he was talking to and made his way toward him. "Frotz! Natri'amor, is that you?!"

"Ka, Rolriam'or." Nat, surprisingly smiled, meeting the man half way. He extended his hand to greet him, but he only used it to pull him into a hug.

"There is a rumor going around that somebody graduated from the Coruscant Flight School. You have become true warrior."

"Arni. But not so much." He frowned. "Things are going well here?"

"Ka, but last night Pol'riamor had a bad nightmare. You're father and the rest of the High Council got called this morning. Rumor had it they even had to visit the Council of Kivas." His lekku spread in a shrug. "I know little. But, you're Lia'ry is around here somewhere. She will be happy to see that you're home."

"She is doing well?"

"Very much so, although the Racor clan still bristles whenever they see her in the market. They had no right selling sweet Seela in the first place. She is of our clan, not theirs."

"Their High Council will one day pay for that mistake." Nat promised, walking past his cousin.

"And where are you going?"

"If I'm going to be dealing with you and Tal, I'm going to need to clear my head first."

And with that he headed to the best place he knew. The Floating Rock Gardens.

[Princess 35]

Nima stepped into the nearest refresher station and changed out of her fight suit, which was so comfortable for travelling, and changed into something that was suited a little better for going so near to the Bright Lands. She stepped back out into the street near the busy market and rented a speeder to take her to the Floating Rock Gardens to clear her head.

She enjoyed the ride, it felt good to be home again and she was at the Rock Gardens sooner than she thought she'd be. After parking her speeder, she wandered in and went to find a quiet spot to meditate.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi came out of a doorway on the upper level of the hangar to find three mercenaries rushing towards him on a catwalk to his right. They brought up their weapons to fire but hesitated a second upon seeing the Mandalorian armour.

That was all Tak needed. In their moment of hesitation, he attacked. His Ripper pistol, a classic slugthrower of Mando design, shot up from its holster and two of the mercs found themselves with an extra hole to breath through...in their foreheads. The third, a Trandoshan, dropped down into a low crouch. His blaster abandoned, the Trandoshan lunged at Tak with its raking claws. Takeshi side-stepped the charge then grabbed the merc from behind, by the throat, and pulled him close.

The Trandoshan tried to claw his way out of Tak's grip but the Mandalorian put an end to his resistance. A blade popped out of one of Tak's gauntlets then he drove it up under the merc's jaw, straight into his brain.

The blade retracted and the Trandoshan slid to the catwalk, dead.

Takeshi looked down at the chaos below. More mercenaries were continuing to pour in through the breach in the hangar doors and the base personel were slowly being driven back. Soon this entire position would be lost and the base forces would have to fall back.

He could also see Layla amidst the battle. She was in a well defensible location and holding her own. Tak drew his Thunderer heavy blaster pistol, holding it and the Ripper dual-handed, and activated his jetpack. He flew across the hangar, towards Layla's position, gunning down any merc he could see. Upon landing, he traded his guns for his twin katanas and promptly used them to sever the thick heads off a pair of Gamorrean necks.

"Good to see I didn't miss all the fun!" he shouted over to Layla. "I thought you would have taken care of these guys by now!"

Edited May 23, 2008 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

"I thought you would have wanted me to save a few for you!" Layla looked over to him, clad fully in Mandalorian armor. She had never seen him like that, and she found that for a split second she forgot to fire. She blushed slightly at this, firing a few more shots before her power pack was spent, and ducking down behind cover to switch out the power packs. She looked him up and down one more time for good measure. "I'm not going to lie though, you definatly just upped the pheromones. Soon these guys are going to forget about shooting."

***

Nat paid the small entrance fee to the Rock Garden, glad to see that it was not busy today. He felt, that that was the way it should be.

There was a unique atmospheric effect that directed the winds blowing through the cavernous tunnels here that allowed rocks to float on the wind, like solid clouds. There were thousands of small, colorful and unique stones left by previous visitors, as well as a few large boulders. Visitors could rearrange the floating rocks to any formation they chose, but were encouraged to simply let the wind move them naturally. It was a peaceful thing, tied intricatly into the culture of his people. he remembered coming here once with his father as a child. He hadn't quite understood the significance of it all then, but Dinekri'amor had given the stones more meaning to him.

"See how the stones float on the current? They are like us, guided gently by Kika'lekki on the winds of fate."

Nat didn't know about Kika'lekki anymore, but fate was something he could understand.

The past couple of weeks had been rough on him. His leg had healed, but lately he felt like he was letting his Squadron down. Like they weren't disciplined, or prepared enough. Maybe that's why they kept getting hurt. Why Szen was still in the hospital, missing parts of her body that could never heal.

Standing there, watching the rocks float he wondered where his fate would lead him.

[Princess 35]

As Nima was wandering throughout the gardens, she felt the stress leaving her. She wondered how Szen was doing with her rehab and wondered if there was anything more that she could have done to help Szen. She meandered away from the crowds a bit and found a quiet spot to sit down, when she recognized a familiar blue skinned Twi-lek coming her way. Nima stood. "Natri'amor, is that you?"

[Rogue 4]

"Vashna "Nima'secura." Nat gave her a slight bow out of respect. He looked different, out of the stuffy New Republic uniform, or bright orange flightsuit that he usually wore around the squadron. Instead he was wearing the elegant, but loose-fitting clothes that were customary for men of his species, and in colors more pleasing than Rebellion orange. "I thought I saw you over here, but I believed you to be on Coruscant. I'm glad to see that you recieved some time away from the chaos as well."

[Drake 53]

Tak struck a dashing pose, propping one foot up on the back of a decapitated Gamorrean and putting his hands on his hips. "Why thank you, fair maiden!" He took a blaster shot to his chestplate and stumbled backward a few steps. "Di'kut!" he exclaimed. After righting himself, he extended his arm in the direction of the attacker; a small cluster of mercenaries holed up behind a maintenance speeder. A small compartment popped up, on the top of Tak's gauntlet, revealing a row of mini-missiles. Takeshi fired one, directly into the speeder's drive compartment. The missile detonated and was magnified by the speeder's fuel cells.

He struck the pose again, this time washed in the orange glow of burning debris.

[Princess 35]

"Vishna Natri'amor." Nima bowed in greeting. "Yes, it was a bit late, but once I get Szen settled at Starfighter Command and out of the tank, I realized that I needed some time away and some time to clear my head. The last couple of battles have been a little tough, so I decided instead of burying myself in studies, that I'd come hear to see my clan and come to the gardens." She shifted, slightly uncomfortable in her scanty outfit in front of the stern XO.

[Rogue 4]

"I felt the same way." He confessed. "And Aeric said that he had everything under control at Headquarters." He didn't say or do anything that he thought would make her uncomfortable, but apparently he was doing that all the same. He supposed that she had simply just hoped to escape everyone from the squadron, and he was making that impossible. "In any rate, you enjoy your vacation, I don't want to hold you up."

[Princess 35]

Nima grabbed at him. "Wait Natri'amor. Don't go. Look at the rocks with me. Let us find peace here together. I believe that we are meant to go through this together to make the squadron stronger." She sat and leaned back, looking up at the rocks. "It's so amazing. I feel so insignificant here. It helps keep me grounded as a physician so that I don't get the 'God Complex' that some other battlefield surgeons get." She looked up at him and patted the ground next to her.

[Rogue 4]

Nat gave her a slight smile of amusement at her insistance and sat down beside her, looking up at the rocks. He seemed much more relaxed, more at ease than normal. Maybe just being home was having this affect on him. "Yes well, when you start thinking that you can ressurect the dead we will know that you have a problem."

***

Layla grinned at him, turning back to the battle. She let a few shots off, knocking down two humans, a rodian, and wounding a Shistavinian. "Great, that's just what we need. Takeshi Beskar, holo-soap extraordinaire!" She rolled her eyes, then turned serious as more mercenaries started to swarm the hanger. One got a little closer than her liking, and she shot him in the head. Before her shot connected though, a stun bolt lanced out, hitting the officer next to her and he fell to the deck. "They're shooting to stun. If they're planning to raid this place, why would they do that?! Why not just kill everybody?"

[Winters 0]

Cale walked down the first breech of the base to inspect the carnage, hoping desperately that the target was still alive. Around him was ten men of mixed species, his body guard, doing their job, protecting his body.

"Sir, sir!" he heard on his comlink.

He picked it up, sighing. Can't these children do a kriffing job wihout me holding their hands? "Sano here."

"Sir! We... We have a Mando here! A real Mandalorian!" That made Cale pause, and swear.

"STANG! A kriffing Mando!" He realized he showed too much of himself, then put his actors mask back on. "Ahem," he turned on the comlink again. "Then be extra careful. In fact, do anything needed to kill him. If there's a Mando here, then our target either hired him or Mando's are going into the Republic, so either way, kill it. I give you full permission to use anything needed to kill it. Just make sure that no one else is around!" He looked around at his dumbstruck guard. "Well! Protect the body you're paid to protect!" He looked around and one gave him an old DC-15S. "Now, let's continue our inspection."

[Drake 53]

"Last name is Skirata now, doll," Tak said, ducking down to share Layla's cover while he popped a new cartridge into his Ripper. "I'm afraid I went off and outed myself to the base commander." He rose up for a few seconds, fired off a few rounds, then dropped back down as a flury of full-powered blaster bolts zinged past. "They're stunning because they're looking for someone. Someone that they want taken alive!" Another pair of bolts flew over his head. "That someone clearly isn't me."

Takeshi stuck his head back out of cover for a moment, taking in the battle. He caught a glimpse of a man dressed in uniform amid the armoured and unwashed mercenary bodies. Tak dropped back down. Inside of his helmet, he was busy sorting through his heads-up-display, replaying the footage of the uniformed man, pausing and zooming in on a brief moment where his arm was in view.

There. The insignia on the man's upper arm. Tak knew he had seen it before....

"They're after you, Legs," he said. "There's a man out there, probably the guy in charge, from Archaic. They want you alive!" Tak shot up again, both guns firing. While he was up again, he saw a familiar face step through the breach. A heavily armed and armoured Bothan named Karsus. "Bounty hunters..." he muttered to himself, then to Layla said, "Get out of here! I'll hold them off!"

[Vergere 1]

Brier meandered around the complex with Kaden and showed him more ins and outs of the place before heading back inside for dinner.

[Princess 35]

Floating Rock Gardens, Ryloth

Nima suddenly had a mischievous grin on her face. "What, you mean that I can't do that already? Dang you for ruining my moment." When Nat shook his head at her Nima smiled and then leaned back and stared up at the rocks, feeling the tranquility roll over her. "It's been 10 years since I've been home. I was coming home for the zen'ka wedding. I was in a small ship, I'd met up with another from our clan on the way back here from Coruscant. I'd just finished my pre-med degree and had been accepted into Coruscant Med. I was so excited to tell my hoay that I'd been accepted. I was planning on coming to this exact spot after the wedding to prepare for medical school and the stresses that come with it. All of the sudden, as we were making our approach to the planet, we were attacked by this pirate ship. We were in an unarmed transport and they hit us with an ion cannon. My clansmen, he smiled at me and said that I'd bring him an handsome profit and that my family wouldn't miss me that much. He pulled out a blaster and stunned me." A single tear rolled down Nima's cheek.

[Rogue 4]

"Vassij'ra is a practice that our race must get rid of." Nat's lekku curled in disgust at what her clansmen had done. He reached an hand over to gently rub Nima's back in a soothing manner. He just hoped she wouldn't pull away from him. "I do not know of another species who will sell their own into slavery. And here, it is a problem that every clan is affected by."

***

"Archaic?!" Layla's eyes went wide. Deign was after her. Deign had found her. Every instinct in her body told her to run...but her heart made her turn to Tak. "What about you?! You can't hold off this whole hanger!"

[Winters 0]

Cale watched as his mercs were firing stun bolts at two individuals; the unknown Mando and the girl, that girl, the girl with the red hair. He remembered, to look for a girl with red hair. That made him chuckle as blaster shots were fired at him.

?Protect my kriffing body!? He paused, thanking the Force, for this little gift. ?A thousand credits to whomever gets that girl!?

[Drake 53]

"Maybe not, but it will buy you some time, sweetcheeks," Tak said, grimly. "Head to the command centre. There's half a dozen emergency escape shuttles docked beneath it. If things get bad, I want you to take one and get out of here." He pulled Layla to her feet. "Time to go." Tak put a hand on her cheek and brushed back some loose strands of hair. Despite the battle going on behind them, he still took this moment to show his affection. He would have kissed her if he had the chance.

"Go on, I'll catch up."

[Ender 8]

Jaim worked his way quickly and quietly through the halls of the base, making his way to the origin of the distress call. When he got there, he found four mercs planting concussion charges on the door to the power station.

If they kill the lights, we've got no chance, he thought. Well, I will, and Beskar, but not anyone else... still, it's four to one.

Jaim raised his blaster and shot the nearest merc in the back of the head. With his other hand, Jaim flipped two vibroknives out of his jacket pocket and into the throats of the next two, who didn't have a chance to do anything but act surprised.

One on one.

The final mercenary drew his blaster and got off a shot, catching Jaim's blaster, sending it flying out of his hand. The next bolt never came. The merc looked confused.

That was all Jaim needed. He rushed the merc, who tried in desperation to knock his assailant down by throwing his blaster at him, but he missed. Jaim rolled under it, ripped one of his knives free from one of the dead, came up, and drove it into the man's chest.

"That's why you always check your powerpack. And carry a backup. Better luck in the next life," Jaim said, as the merc gasped and thrashed out the last of his life.

Replacing his knife, Jaim activated his comm. "Tak, this is Jaim. The power station is secure."

[Rogue 4]

"You better." Layla told him after a moment of indecision, her granite gray eyes meeting his for a split second that felt like a lifetime. "If you let a bunch of mercs kill you then you deserve to be dead." A little parting joke, like many they had delevered eachother since they'd met about two months ago. Still, those two months seemed like a lifetime in and of itself. If Takeshi didn't make it out of here....

She wanted to tell him how much she cared. To just blurt it out in front of everyone. Three small, insignificant words, put together to form a thought, an emotion, that was so altogether meaningful. But she couldn't. Because if they both got out of this alive like she hoped those three words would also ruin their careers and lives.

So instead she just turned, running towards the entrance to the hanger and into the hall beyond. And from there, she just kept running.

[Winters 0]

?Stang.? Cale whispered to himself. He looked around at his guard, slowly being picked off by the Mando, while the girl ran off. ?Stang.? He looked at the bodyguard, of which two were already dead. They looked back at him with a clueless expression. ?Obviously didn?t go to college.? He whispered to himself. ?Well!? He motioned to the red hair that was running away. ?Go after her!? The all jumped over toward her.

?No, not all of you!? He sighed. ?Two of you, the Mando is more dangerous.? He rolled his eyes. ?I need to hire smarter bodyguards.? The two passed by, ?And ones that wash daily.? They ran after the girl while the others suppressed the Mando.

?Cease fire!? He waved over his face in a traditional stop firing hand signal. He then pulled a blaster from one of the mercs. ?Blast it, I tell you to stop firing and you stop firing.? Everyone stopped firing. ?I?m kriffing paying you to follow my orders?? He sighed, then turned to the Mando still hiding.

?Mando! Mandalore!? He stretched out the last syllable in an almost drunken manner to gain attention. ?You don?t have to fight.? He stood facing the Mando. ?This is not your fight. I?m just here for the girl.? He dropped his blaster rifle, walking over toward the Mando. ?I don?t want to kill you.?

[Mara 29]

Artie took in all the sights with a few whistles here and there. Before going back inside, though, Kaden told Artie to go find the other droids, telling him where it was. He didn't want the droid interrupting their dinner because he wasn't sure who would be there.

Once inside the dining room, Kaden hesitantly picked out a chair.