Chapter 3: Archaic

[Winters 0]

Cale Sano crawled away from the bounty hunter and the Mando fighting. No... no... that Mado was only saying those things to get to me. Cale thought back to Argos. He's always looked out for me, ever since I've dropped into the wrong crowd. He ran back to the safty of his remaning bodyguards, grabbing his DC-15S along the way. He sat against a nearby wall and sighed. Guy doesn't understand fine acting when he sees it. Blast it, such a fine act and he dismissed it as whining... He looked around. I should do some community theatre again, I miss those days. My fine acting skills are wasted here, I shouldn't use them on random Mandos and unbathing bodyguards.

"Where's OUR Mando?" I yelled.

"After the target sir, don't worry, after the target."

He turned his attention to what the Mando said. Argos... he's always looked after me. At the back of his voice, another voice popped up. Has he truely looked after you? Or just used you to his advantage? Use your skills at paperwork and administration? He just looked after because it was for his own personal interests...

He ran into a hallway, seeing his bodyguard there, running away from the Mando. NO! He looks out for me because I was in NEED. I... I... He paused, wiping sweat off of his forehead. "Maybe this isn't the right place for me..." he said to himself, one of the bodyguards giving him an inquisitive look.

Edited May 25, 2008 by Winters

[Drake 53]

"Not sure," replied Tak. He pinged her comm again, refreshing her location on his mini-map. He would have to double-back on a couple paths to make it to where Layla was. "I'll be there soon. Just keep moving."

***

Mird got up and stalked through the trees, growling and baying, while remaining hidden in the foliage and shadows. The woman had shot it but the wound was only superficial, having hit one of its skin flaps. Mird could sense that the quarry had been injured, judging from her painful limp. Knowing what it had to do, the strill continued driving her on into its master's trap.

[Princess 35]

Floating Rock Gardens, Ryloth

"I know that Nat. That's why I'm planning on stopping by the market to pick myself up some new toys before I go home. I want to get a wrist vac and a sleep inducer." She flashed him a mischieveous grin. "I don't exactly plan on fighting fair. You do realize that I'm a girl and that girl's fight dirty, right?"

[Ender 8]

"Tak, it's Jaim, I'm coming up due east of you, across the parallel path. So please, don't shoot me." I like cities so much better than nature, he thought.

[Rogue 4]

"I copy." Layla said, limping on. The beast was still after her, and she shot at it with her blaster from time to time, until unexpectedly she burst into a clearing. Off to the left she saw that a ship was parked, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

Someone must have been waiting for her here. The beast had been herding her.

She held her blaster protectively in front of her, searching for any sign of movement, as she tried to turn back the way she came.

***

"So I've heard." Nat told her. "You have to be careful, you know as well as I how sexist the Ryloth clans can be."

[Drake 53]

"I'll try not to," said Tak. He was close now. One final ping revealed that Layla was in the jungle clearing where most of the speeder paths converged. in the canyon.

***

The bounty hunter saw Layla Nasrin enter the clearing and wave her blaster from side to side. She wouldn't be able to see him until it was too late anyway. The dart gun came up and he fired a single projectile filled with a neuro-chemical agent that would paralyze a target's muscles while still leaving them completely aware of what was going on around them.

The dart struck Layla in the calf muscle. From there, it would take only a couple seconds for the agent to reach her brain and shut down her motor functions.

[Rogue 4]

Layla felt the dart hit her, but hadn't even seen where it had come from. She reached down, pulling it out of her leg. Still, it was too late, the neurotoxin travelling through her nervous system and rendering parts of her body useless. She felt her legs give out on her, and she fell to the ground on her side, unable to do a thing about it.

She had failed. She had been captured. And all she could think about were the people back home who relied upon her. Sena, and her baby, Ayana.

[Ender 8]

Jaim could just barely make out Takeshi's form far in front of him. He's going to get there long before I do, he's moving too fast for me, he thought. I'll stick back and cover him.

[Drake 53]

The grey armoured Mandalorian stepped out of his cover amidst the trees and walked over to Layla. Mird came up behind the woman and slowly circled her. When the man reached her, he dragged her back a few feet and propped her up against a stump.

"Layla Nasrin," he said, looking down at her. "You've proven to be quite the chase, havn't you? Well...you all slip up eventually. Then I find you. Some have said, a long time ago, that I could track a flitnat across the galaxy." The bounty hunter crouched down next to her and grabbed the sides of her face with one grey leather glove, turning her head from side to side as if inspecting her. "A little dirty. A little sweaty. I suppose I can see what Argos saw in you...and why he was willing to pay so much for one little Zeltron. You must have dug your pheromonal claws into him pretty deep."

She could only look up at him with eyes filled with hate and a hint of sadness. Almost a sense of failure. A look that the man had seen many times before. "I apologize. Where are my manners? My name is Jaing. Jaing Skirata." Pointing to the pacing pet he added, "And this here is Lord Mirdalan. You may remember me from Ithyari. Well now that we've been introduced, I suppose I should give you a little tour of the ship."

The Mandalorian, who called himself Jaing Skirata, bent down to pick Layla up and carry her to his ship, however he stopped half way as if listening to something. Suddenly a high-pitched droning filled the air and Jaing jumped to the ground just as a speeder bike roared overhead.

Takeshi, meanwhile, had jumped from the bike, rolling through into a crouch near Layla. "Don't touch her hut'uunla beroya! [cowardly bounty hunter]

Edited May 26, 2008 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

Layla breathed a sigh of relief, or she would, if she could move that much. She was so happy to see Takeshi there, that she could have cried.

She wished she could move. Wished she could get to her feet, pick up her blaster and do something. Anything. And more than anything she wanted to shoot that Bounty Hunter between the chest plates for calling her dirty.

Instead, all she could do was watch with fearful grey eyes, hoping that her Mandalorian would beat Deign's.

[Drake 53]

Jaing got up into a crouch, facing Takeshi. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you here for her bounty too? Or has the New Republic has taken to hiring Mandos? Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod?" [Are you looking for a smack in the face, mate?]

"They pay well enough," Tak said. The two Mandalorians were now circling eachother. Neither drawing their weapon but both with fingers twitching close to the blasters. Takeshi was also keeping an eye on the strill's position. He could see that it was keeping behind him so it could distract him long enough for the bounty hunter to gain the upper hand.

Finally, Mird lunged at his back. Tak dropped and rolled to the side, letting the beast jump past him. Already, the bounty hunter was firing, pelting the earth behind Tak as he rolled. He came up into a crouch, weapon already in hand and firing before he even had the other Mando in his sights. Takeshi took a hit to the chestplate and gave one in return before both ran at eachother at full force. Jaing gave a short burst from his jetpack, affording his punch the power of a height advantage. However, Tak tucked into a sommersault and pushed off, planting his feet into the middle of Jaing's chest.

The bounty hunter flew backwards and slid across the ground several feet. While he was temporarily out of the picture, the strill attacked again. It tackled Tak from the side, knocking him to the ground as it ferociously hammered at his helmet. Takeshi brought his arms up to block then pushed the heavy beast off with an elbow jab.

Takeshi flicked his blaster to stun and put a bolt into the strill, knocking it out for at least a few minutes. He started to turn the weapon back to Jaing only to find it kicked from his hand, followed by an open-palm strike to his chestplate. Tak staggered backwards then blocked and parried Jaing's next attacks.

They were fairly evenly matched in terms of fighting ability and skill, however, Takeshi was tiring since the fight with Karsus while Jaing was comparatively rested.

Throughout the entire fight, it seemed as though neither combatants had a desire to kill the other. Perhaps there was some kind of Mandalorian code of honour that prevented them from doing so. Nonetheless, both men fought fiercly. Jaing for his pay cheque and Takeshi for Layla's freedom.

Takeshi pushed himself but soon found that he was weakening from exhaustion. His suit was having trouble absorbing all the sweat and the cooling systems weren't able to keep up. Tak gradually moved into a defensive posture while Jaing quickly found that more and more of his strikes were slipping through his opponent's defenses.

Finally, his concentration slipped and Jaing delivered a hammering right hook into the side of Tak's helmet. His head snapped from the blow and spots danced before his eyes.

Tak spat out blood inside his helmet and groaned through the pain. As he staggared and fought to stand, he said, "I'm sorry...my love."

Jaing grabbed Takeshi by the shoulders and delivered a headbutt. The blow set him toppling backwards and to the ground. All Tak could see whas red as blood from his mouth splattered against the interior of his visor. Then blackness overtook his vision and he succumbed to unconsiousness.

The other Mandalorian sighed. He bowed his head and placed a fist over his chest in a salute to Takeshi, saying, "Mandokarla, ner vod." [You've got the right stuff, brother.] He turned and walked back to Layla. He had a slight limp, no doubt an injury left by Takeshi. Mirdalan had recently regained consiousness and was slowly crawling back to Jaing's ship, whimpering all the while.

When the grey armoured Mandalorian approached Layla, he pulled her up and said, "Sorry you had to see that...but I can't let anyone get in the way of what Argos is gonna pay me." He hauled her limp body over his shoulder, grunting with the pain and effort, then carried her to his ship. Jaing put her in the prisoner hold, locked her up, then left for the cockpit.

Jaing opened up a comm channel with Cale Sano. "This is Skirata. Mission complete. I'm leaving to deliver as ordered."

Moments later, the Null-10 started up and rose from the ground. The grass of the clearing whipped about Tak's motionless body. He opened his eyes and watched as the blurry, black vessel rose skyward and flew away. All Takeshi could think, through his pain-wracked mind, was that he had failed.

Edited May 26, 2008 by Drake

[Ender 8]

Jaim watched the battle with a mixture of awe and anxiety. No matter how he moved, he couldn't get a clear shot to help Tak. He really, really, did not like nature. Now, however, he ran full out through the underbrush towards Tak, at least as fast as his still-healing leg could move. He reached the prone Mandalorian (something else Jaim was trying to sort out) and knelt next to him, ripping off his helmet.

He slapped Tak's face a few times. "Come on you nerfherder, wake up. You're not getting out of this that easy."

Edited May 26, 2008 by The Stig

[Andy 60]

Coruscant (lower levels)

Aston flicked the switch to activate the lights. He had already guessed there was no power to them as they should have been automatic. He sighed and hoped his squadmates were having more luck on their R&R. He turned his night vision visor to maximum and stared off down the long dark corridor, and was satisfied there was nothing out of the ordinary there. Heading over to the computer terminal, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his datapad and the associated connectivity cables.

A few moments later he had power restored, and put away his equipment. He unholstered his blaster again and headed further down the corridor towards the accessway to his old base. A number of the doors were etched with the familiar roundel of the Galactic Empire: But despite being guarded by heavy duty security systems and powerful computers, they had all been open; mostly by Aston himself. He thought back a few years and saw a scruffy kid grinning as he sliced the high security door and opened it to reveal a cache of repair equipment that his group had used to trade for weapons and upgrades for Aston's datapad.

Eventually he came to the hatch on the ceiling of the corridor and pushed a broken GNK droid over so he could stand on it to reach the hatch. Crawling up he followed the makeshift tunnel and dropped down into the small room he and his mates had inhabited for several years. It was completely empty, as were the ajoining rooms.

Bizarrely as he turned to leave he noticed a number scrawled across the back wall. He looked at it and wondered where he had seen it before. He made a note of it in his datapad.

1295004.

Figuring there was nothing left down here now, he headed back to the lift to the surface. He pressed the button and it creaked to life, but had barely moved a metre when something clanged and the lift dropped and swung as if hinged. He frantically grabbed onto the railing, but to his horror the entire lift hurtled towards its base, plunging him into darkness once more.

[Drake 53]

Tak turned his head and spat out a mouthful of blood and saliva. "A couple things you should know about Mandalorians," he said through the pain. "First is, it'll take more than that to bring one of us down...and second, we never leave anyone behind." He reached up and grabbed Jaim's arm to help pull him to his feet. Once up, Tak used his chin to hit a button in his neckguard, delivering a much needed stim shot to his exhausted body. In hindsight, he figured he should have done that during the fight but he had been focusing on other things at the time.

A little more rejuvenated, Takeshi walked over to where his blaster lay and picked it up. When he was holstering it, he spotted something shiny in the grass. Going over to pick it up as well, he discovered that it was a dart gun. No doubt the same weapon the bounty hunter had used to incapacitate Layla. He tucked it into a spare holster and walked back to Jaim.

"I don't suppose you brought a speeder. Mine's scrapped," he said, hooking a thumb towards a pile of wreckage and a large black spot on a tree across the clearing. It was less of a question and more of a statement so, without waiting for an answer, added, "Looks like we're walking back."

Edited May 26, 2008 by Drake

[Ender 8]

"Looks that way. Did you really have to send yours into a tree?"

[Drake 53]

Next Tak picked up his helmet. He didn't put it on as the interior visor was currently covered in blood, so he clipped it to the back of his belt. "It was for dramatic effect." He started back down the trail. There were no sharp pains when he moved which meant no broken bones or any serious damage. The worst he got was a few pulled muscles, the cut in his mouth, and probably a minor concussion from the headbutt and landing.

"Let's hope the rest of the people at the base have done better."

[Rogue 4]

It wasn't long before Layla felt the neuropoison wearing off, the pins and needles making way for the throbbing pain in her ankle. She had been captured, thrown in a hold that had nothing special to offer but an in-room refresher, and an electrobar door.

When she could move, she sat up, propping herself against the wall. There was no use checking for her weapons. They had already been taken, along with anything that might aid her in any respect. And anything that she could use to deny the Mandalorian his bounty had also been taken, and that seemingly included her belt. Not that that was a big concern, as it was just for show. Honestly she would have prefered her hold-out blaster.

I failed...and Takeshi fought for me down there, and now...

She had heard those last words to her as he lay there, staring blankly at her through his mask, and she knew that he felt like he'd failed too.

She stood slowly, wincing as she put pain on her right ankle, and then shifted her weight to her left leg. She realized that there was a camera staring out at her, and out of spite she pulled off her boot and thew it at it, cracking the lens. Feeling just slightly better now that she'd gotten some rage out, she reclaimed her boot and sat down against the wall beneath the camera---so he couldn't see her of course--and crossed her arms as she tried to think of a way to get out of this mess.

[Drake 53]

Jaing flew his ship past the remnants of the mercenary fleet, not bothering to help with the continuing battle with the New Republic defenders. Only a couple ships remained with a handful of fighters holding off the half-dozen or so X-Wings still in play.

They weren't Jaing's problem. He was getting paid for the girl. A few less mercs would do the galaxy good.

He smirked while watching Layla's efforts then opened up the comm channel to the prisoner hold. "That camera hasn't worked for four months but you're the first to actually break it. Congratulations. There are others around. Hidden and not as easily broken by a boot."

[Rogue 4]

She figured as much. She'd seen the Mandalorians at work in the Nagai-Tof war, and if they were anything, they weren't stupid. Actually, her breaking the camera was a Zeltron lead of sorts. By offending his security, she was able to learn more about it from him.

She spotted one of the cameras. It was well hidden, she'd give it that. She walked over to it, so it looked as if she was speaking to him. "Of course you do. What would the perks of holding me be if you couldn't look at me from every angle? Listen, sweet-cheeks, whatever Deign's paying you, I'll double it."

[Drake 53]

Jaing smiled. They all said the same thing. "I bet you would and, for that, I have your word. Mr. Argos and I have what's called a contract. Words can be broken. Contracts cannot. Once you've been delivered and I've been paid, we can negotiate...however, I don't think you'll be in much of a position to make good on your payment."

[Rogue 4]

She had a feeling that wouldn't work. She knew about Bounty Hunters and their contracts.

She had contracted a few while she'd been in Archaic.

Time for a new tactic. "You said your name was Skirata, right?" Layla looked into the lens. "I know your clan was among the ones who fought in the Nagai-Tof war. You're a brave and noble clan, despite everything that happened. But, we were on the same side, you and I. Are you willing to turn in another comrade-in-arms?"

[Drake 53]

"Yeah, because every single one of us fought in that war. Not me," said Jaing matter-of-factly. "Even so, you said that we were on the same side. War's over now, Red, and I don't answer to the New Republic. Now you might want to buckle up. Oh wait...."

The ship lurched as he punched it into hyperspace.

[Rogue 4]

Layla felt herself fly backwards, hitting her back on the far wall as the ship lurched violently, then falling forward as the acceleration compensators came online. She landed on her ankle, and yelped in surprise and pain. She let out every single curse she knew, in Basic, Huttese, and a few other choice languages. Ironically, she realized that most of them were ones she'd learned working with Archaic.

She couldn't believe that Takeshi, the man she knew and loved was related somehow to this man. As far as she was concerned this Mandalorian could go frag himself. Violently.

She didn't know what to do. She'd tried greasing the servos, and that didn't work. The sense of comraderie didn't seem to want to apply to him. "That's lovely. I'm sure Deign will be thrilled when you deliver damaged goods to him. Believe me, I know him better than anyone. He's going to want to inflict the pain himself. You can say goodbye to about 20% off the top of the bounty."

[Drake 53]

Jaing got up from his seat and started removing his armour. He left the commlink open as he did so, to continue shooting down everything Layla said. "Well, actually, the contract calls for 'mostly undamaged'. A few bumps and bruises here, a little wear and tear there. Some battle damage. As long as I don't kill you, really. Like I said back when we first met, Argos is pretty desperate."

Once he was out of his armour, Jaing checked himself over for any serious injuries. The only thing that was really bothering him was a sprained ankle from a bad landing and some nasty bruises from the other Mandalorian's hard punches. He popped a couple painkillers then set to work on repairing his armour.

[Rogue 4]

She was silent for a long moment as she contemplated that, straightening out her leg and considering the idea of trying to set her ankle by herself. When she spoke, it was quietly, contemplatively. "He's going to kill me, you know...he's already tried once. This time there's nothing to prevent him from succeeding."