Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Rogue 4]

"Oh baby..." Layla's voice was murmured by his jacket but audible. She was grinning to herself. They'd taken up as much time as they could. Hopefully that had been enough. She held onto him, her arms wrapped around his waist. "I'll try if you'll try."

[Drake 53]

"I will. I promise to make this work." He leaned down and kissed her. He hoped that no one else from the squadron, most of all Nat, was around to see since that might cause for some later awkwardness and possible demotion. The kiss drew an "awww" from the crowd.

"Alright, alright," said the burly security guard to the crowd. "Nothing left to see here. Move about your business. Go on." He turned back to Tak and Layla. "Nice show, you two. Now would you kindly leave before creating another disturbance?"

"Sure," said Tak with a smile. "But first, could you tell me where the 'fresher is?"

The guard sighed and pointed across the hall where a pair of signs showed where the men and women's refreshers were. They thanked the security guard and were turning away towards the 'freshers when there was some commotion from one of the connecting corridors. Tak heard blasterfire and what sounded like a concussion rifle blast. Sure enough, a Stormtrooper went flying from the hallway, followed by six well-armed Revenants.

The burly security guard reached for his commlink. Probably to call for backup or a lockdown. Tak tapped him on the shoulder. "Just one more thing..." he said right before snapping his rigid hand straight up into the guard's face. Tak's palm connected with the large man's nose and he felt cartiledge and bone crush beneath his strike. The guard cried out in pain and grabbed at his shattered and bleeding nose. Tak dropped him with a roundhouse kick to the face.

He looked up again to see the remaining two guards pushing towards him, through the rapidly panicking crowd, stun batons already in hand. Tak turned to Layla and said, "I think it's time to go, Legs."

***

Outside turned into a madhouse. Suddenly a flood of panicked businessbeings, traders and tourists came pouring out of the front doors and down the marble steps of the Planetary House like a waterfall of people.

Atuarre watched through her sniper scope as a military speeder pulled up from the opposite street and disgorged almost a dozen Stormtroopers. They immediately began pushing their way back up the stairs, blaster rifles ready to fire. Atuarre chuffed a laugh and fired at the armoured soldier wearing an orange shoulder pauldron denoting an officer.

The remaining Stormtroopers stopped and looked around for the sniper. She had killed three more of their number in the time it took to find her. When they orientented their weapons to her position, Atuarre had already slung the rifle across her back and was leaping into the tree beneath her. Her powerful arms caught hold of a thick branch and she used it to swing herself down to the ground.

Landing in a crouch, Atuarre dashed forward, pulling free a long knife from a sheath at her waist. She rolled to the side as a stream of blaster fire passed over where she had just been. Coming up from the roll, Atuarre launched herself at the nearest Stormtrooper, stabbing her blade into the unprotected armpit. The blade bit deep and she felt warm blood soak her hand. The trooper dropped his E-11 and fell to his knees, gurgling as though his lung was punctured. Atuarre mercifully snapped his neck, putting him out of his misery.

The once Trianii Ranger rose up to her full height and growled menacingly at the remaining five Stormtroopers.

[Rogue 4]

Layla's palm blaster slid into her hand and she took down the first of the two other guards with a well placed shot to the neck. "Yes, I think so." She was reaching into her bag for something when she felt Takeshi grab her by the arm and pull her through the crowd towards the nearest exit. She stumbled once or twice, her fingers brushing what she was looking for as they ran, people bumping frantically into them, before her fingers finally found purchase. She'd let Takeshi worry about that other guard.

She pulled out what appeared to be a bottle of perfume, and stopped, twisting on the cap. A bluish liquid dripped from the top, hitting the golden liquid beneath and immediatly begining to steam inside the bottle. She pulled back and threw it into the main entrance, and it smashed, smoke pluming up in all directions making visibility terrible...especially if you were wearing a transparisteel visored stormtrooper helmet. They tended to fog up nicely.

She grinned proudly now that the Stormtroopers that were coming in couldn't tell friend from foe and couldn't shoot into the crowd for them or the others.

Edited October 24, 2007 by Rogue

[Princess 35]

Nima grabbed the weapon from Nat. "Well yeah, I mean look at the pasts of our families. I figured that we'd have ended up killing each other by now. Were you thinking like a bad teenage Twi'lek again Nat?" She heard a crash outside. "I think that we'd better hurry hun."

[Vergere 1]

Brier and Brent backed away from the Planetary House as everyone left, but Brier grabbed the holorecorder from Brent and continued to film the chaos. She looked up to his quizzical features, "Oh, you know, for prosperity's sake." She winked and backed away from the House far enough not to get hurt, but standing close enough to keep filming the drama in front of her, along with a bunch of other wide-eyed tourists, allowing her to blend in quite nicely. However, she kept an eye out for the Revenants as she did so.

[Mara 29]

Kaden had never been so nervous in his life. None of this compared at all to his first time years ago in an X-wing or any time flying for that matter. He knew he wasn't cut out for all this running around and sneaking around, running from stormroopers.

But as he ran down a hall along with the five others, Kaden was glad he kept up his daily runs on base. This was no time to be gasping for breath, especially when he was carrying some large gun he wasn't sure how to use anyway if he stopped moving.

It had been utter chaos earlier with the lift not working, then being ambushed again when the lift made it down to ground floor. Then fighting their way through stormtroopers.

They ran towards an exit, Kaden wishing for all the worlds that he was back in his fighter with Artie.

[Bad furday 57]

Jya aimed the concussion rifle at a spot on the floor infront of the oncoming security guards. Covering her, Arlan took out a stormtrooper emerging from a side corridor.

With a boom, the security guards went flying as the energy charge's shockwave fanned outwards.

The Revanents ran forwards a few more meters, towards the exit and Jaim Adarra's transport.

[Rogue 4]

"Yes, it looks like everything's about to go crazy." Riamor agreed, Nat heard footsteps coming their way and quickly jumped down and locked the door. The reference to their families surprised him. He hadn't really talked about his family, although their activities he supposed were growing more well known among fellow Twi'leks. He had assumed that Nima hadn't known about it when she had confided everything about her past to him in her office a month ago, because why would she have told him if she knew about his family? "And since when do I think like a bad teenager?"

[Ayingel 24]

Szen was thankful for the shape she was in as they neared the exit. She could hear the storm troopers behind them as they kept running; she had figured it wouldn't take long for the rest of the troopers to take notice of their fallen comrades. Szen turned her head back to see how far off they were and pulled out her blaster. "Captain! They're getting close!"

[Drake 53]

At Szen's call, Aeric checked to see if he had any explosives. When he found none, he looked over to Jya. "Get some grenades down that hall!"

Jya nodded and pulled a pair of sonic grenades from the bandolier strapped across her chest. With all of the civilians around, it would be best to refrain from causing too much death and destruction. She thumbed the activation slides on the devices and hurled them back down the corridor they had just left. The grenades would stick to the floor and detonate either after their fuse times out in one minute, or something passes into it's proximity sensor. Jya was counting on the latter.

Tak and Layla joined the group as the area began to quickly fill with smoke. The group pushed through the crowd quickly, moving towards the front entrance in the same direction as the panick-stricken civilians. It was another twenty seconds before a double set of sonic bursts sounded. The Stormtroopers chasing the Revenants had triggered the grenade proximities, causing them to detonate in crippling waves of sound and air pressure.

A few seconds later, they were through the doors, past the smoke and outside. Atuarre was at the bottom of the steps, fighting a pair or Stormtroopers hand-to-hand while another pair were approaching the Trianii with blaster rifles raised to shoot. They were quickly shot down by the Revenants as the group hurried down the steps and towards the waiting speeder bus which was curiously parked on the grass next to the building.

Edited October 24, 2007 by Drake

[Mara 29]

Kaden along with the others hurried into the waiting speeder bus because he knew that the stormtroopers would soon be back and in greater numbers. Somewhere along the way he had dropped his big heavy gun in order to run faster. He didn't know how to use anyway. As he secured his bag around him, he mentally did a head count, even though he was sure the captain would as well. When Atuarre finally came through the smoke, they were missing three: Nat, Nima and Captain Fae.

[Drake 53]

Aeric was the first to reach the bus. For some reason, Jaim was standing on the roof of the vehicle. "What are you doing up there? Don't you know we kind of need to escape now?"

Jaim shrugged and gave an exasperated sigh. Pointing to the window above, he said, "Tell that to your XO!"

The Captain looked confused then saw a flash of blue and purple from the window above. "Five and Eight, get your thrusters in gear! It's time to go!"

***

Two humanoid security droids, designed similarly to the standard protocol models save the black paint job and arm-mounted blasters, stopped in front of the door to Armoury D-02. They detected two unauthorized lifeforms within. The door also appeared to be locked.

"Attention unauthorized humanoid units," said one of the droids. "Cease current action and surrender. Any resistance will be responded to with force."

The second droid sent an electronic signal to the door control, unlocking it.

[Rogue 4]

Nat kicked the durasteel door forward and into the droids as it unlocked, urging Nima to what was now their only escape route. "Out the window Nima, now!" He exclaimed, reaching for a ovoid ball on one of the racks.

Nima didn't have time to protest, stepping up into the window frame and lowering herself as far as she could before falling the rest of the distance down to the top of the speeder. By this time Jaim was lowered to the ground and ready to fly. When she landed her squadmates were there to help her down and inside.

Riamor hurried to the window himself, turning on his way there to throw a present to the security guards who were now re-entering the room, blaster's leveling on the blue skinned Twi'lek. Nat flicked his thumb over the trigger on the device in his hand, throwing it to the nearest droid. "Catch!" He exclaimed before diving headlong out the window.

Two blaster bolts flew past the spot he had just been to leave scorches in the windowpane, and an explosion flew out the window. His body flipped in the air, landing him on his back hard, knees bent on the top of the speeder, lekku bouncing just once against the hull, and his breath leaving him in a rush of air

The first cohesive thought he had was, That's going to hurt in the morning.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Rogue

[Vergere 1]

Brier, still in charge of the holorecorder, got it all. She covered her mouth with her free hand to keep from laughing at the absurdity of it all, and turned it into a cough, as if dust had gotten into her lungs. Just loud enough for her partner to hear, "That's gonna hurt in the morning..."

"If it doesn't already." Brent shook his head and took the holorecorder away from her before she hurt herself. He sighed as they began to get bounced around in the crowd, the masses pushing them away from where the Revenants were. Brier took out her comm unit and sent a message to both Aeric and Nat, while making sure it wasn't overseen by others: I'll catch you back at the makeshift base. Don't wait up. I can't get out of here until the panicked mass breaks up, but you need to get out now. I see more troopers, and some of the new nasties, coming your way and through the crowd.

Brier sighed as she made sure it was sent. "Let's see if they actually listen."

[Rogue 4]

Nat watched a piece of protocol droid exoskeleton float out the window like a small comet, wishing he didn't have to move right now, but his squadmates insistance and the beeping in his pants pocket made him pick himself slowly up and rush down the front of the speeder before turning to head into it and taking a vacant seat near the Captain. Adrenaline still rushing through his system he pulled the beeping datapad out of his pocket. The screen was cracked.

Probably because I landed on it.

"That was a message from Captain Fae..."

Aeric nodded. "I got it too. Twelve, let's get out of here."

[Drake 53]

Tak followed Layla through the back hatch of the speeder transport. They sat in one of the back seats next to Jya and Arlan. "Ol' back of the bus, just like the bad kids," he said with a grin.

"All aboard!" said Jaim with a laugh. He stepped on the accelerator, pushing everyone else back into their seats with a gut twisting lurch. Jaim spun the control wheel hard to the left, sending the speeder in the same direction at such a speed and angle that the repulsorlifts strained to keep the vehicle upright.

"Are you mad!?" shouted Nat as he gripped the back of the seat in front of him.

"Yeah, a little!" replied Jaim. "But right now we're in a speeder chase!"

Tak looked behind him, out the rear window, and saw three Imperial Security speeders emerge from side streets around the Planetary House. They weaved past civilians with practiced ease and sped on after the Revenant speeder, lights flashing and sirens blaring. Behind them came the armed and armoured military speeder.

Aeric grimaced then put a hand on Jaim's shoulder. "Get us to a spaceport. I don't care which one. We just need to get out of this city." He turned back to Tak and Jya, who were sitting next to the middle aisle of the bus and closest to the rear hatch. "Anything you can do to lose our tails will make me a happy Captain."

Tak nodded and grabbed an Imperial Heavy Repeater from the stock of weapons stolen by Jya, Arlan, Nat and Nima. Hitting the controls to open the hatch, Tak grinned and laughed. "This is gonna get loud!" Pointing the repeater out the hatch, he opened fire on the pursuing speeders.

[Mara 29]

It had been one crazy and exciting day for Kaden so far, and he didn't think he'd ever look back on it as somethin he would fondly rememeber as "loads of fun." Fake indenities, sneaking around, stealing information, running from Imperials.... He closed his eyes and tried to block everything out, all the speed, the noise, the movement. Gripping his bag tightly, he didn't realize he was holding it close to his chest as he wished he was away from this place. In his X-wing, with Tashi, anywhere but in this chaotic speeder bus. Kaden took a deep breath and signed, transporting his mind to another place.

[Princess 35]

Nima climbed over her squadronmates to get to Nat. "Are you hurt? Does anything feel broken? I don't have my scanner with me, so you've got to help me here." She started patting him down, feeling for broken bones

[Rogue 4]

"I'm okay," Nat assured her, taking her hands and moving them gently off her body. They were being chased and pursued by Imperial troops, and now was not the time for this. "I don't think I broke anything. I just pushed off with the bad leg and didn't get the momentum I needed to land properly..."

[Vergere 1]

She nodded as the Revenants sped away. "Nice. They listened. Good kids." She grinned over at Brent. "Let's get out of here." They let the masses push them away from the House as the Corellian turned off the holorecorder.

They slipped into a police station with several other civilians, where several Imperials were looking rather miffed that they weren't allowed to go on the chase. One of them growled low in his throat, "50 credits it was someone just pulling a prank."

One of the other ones shrugged, "Some of the reports said it sounded like organized crime. Perhaps its the Rebels?"

The first one shook his head. "Nah. We'd have noticed if Rebels got on planet."

"Who else would have wanted stuff in the House?"

A third Imperial spoke up. "Listen you two idiots, if it were Rebels, they would have sent us all out after them, along with legions of stormtroopers. Instead it's just various police forces. So shut your yappers before you get us in trouble. Chances are it was kids playing pranks again. You know how those smuggler brats are."

As Brier just raised a faint eyebrow, noting with amusement that most of the civilians using the police station for shelter were of the more unlawful nature. The second Imperial spoke up again. "Hey now... I win against those 'smuggler brats' and their families. They make good business here. If that's all it was, let em at the house. They can't do that much damage."

Brier just shook her head as the conversation went on, most of the people in there listening to their bickering and turning out to be rather amused. Brier, on the other hand, was just happy to note that at least the police forces sent against the Revenants didn't realize that they were 'Rebel' commandos. That meant that the unit wouldn't be hunted down as religiously as they normally would be.

[Drake 53]

While Jya took potshots at the pursuing speeders using a stolen E-11, Tak used his repeater to riddle the vehicles with a stream of charged metallic bolts. The security speeders were equipped with deflector shields, causing Jya's shots and even Tak's bolts to deflect off them. However, the constant rain of fire from the Revenants, filled the speeders' viewports with shield hits, obscuring their vision. Just then, one of the vehicles barely managed to swerve at the last second to avoid colliding with an automated street cleaner.

"I'm going to need something with a better punch," grumbled Jya as she dug around in the pile of weapons.

Tak looked over his weapon. "Ah, I got it!" He switched to the heavy repeater's attached concussion grenade launcher. He fired a grenade into the path of the lead security speeder. It detonated on the ground directly in front of the vehicle, the shockwave picking up the speeder and flipping it backwards. It landed on its roof and slid several dozen feet along the road before crashing into a parked vehicle.

He was about to fire off another grenade when Jaim suddenly sent the bus into a full-speed turn around a corner. The g-forces pushed Takeshi backwards into Layla's lap. Looking up at her, he grinned. "Hello there. Having fun yet?"

"They're moving to box us in!" shouted Jya. The two remaining security speeders sped up to either side of the Revenant bus, leaving the military speeder clear to take shots from behind. Even now its top turret was moving into firing position.

"Not good!" said Tak as he got back up and resumed firing consussion grenades.

[Vergere 1]

Brier and Brent were about to leave the station, the masses having thinned out some, when she saw a large holovid showing the chase. She whispered, "Oh no..." Brent gently tugged her out of the police station, and they sat on some stairs to another building. Brier got her comm out as Brent did some work on his datapad.

She called their slicer, speaking in hushed tones, "Aston, the chase is being broadcasted through the city via satellite. It looks like all the buildings have security cameras on the outside. See if you can either download the images to figure out how to get yourselves out of there, or block the satellite picture. Having it up sure isn't going to help your chances. At the moment they don't know you're with the Republic, and the longer you stay on that live video, the longer they have to get a possible positive ID on someone, as well as block your exit routes."

[Princess 35]

Nima gave Nat her best "I'm the doctor, you're the patient so listen up" look. "Now see here Natri'amor. I am the doctor and you are the patient. I was just doing a quick check to make sure that you were all right while I had time. Now that I know nothing is broken, let's have some fun." She picked up a blaster rifle and tossed it to Nat and then picked one up for herself.

[Ender 8]

The Imperial speeder on Jaim's side had now reached a parallel with the Revenants, and the troopers within opened fire, one bolt searing the air above Jaim's hands.

"Frak this!" Jaim yelled, pulling his blaster from his coat pocket. Using his right hand to steer, Jaim sent a trio of bolts at the speeder, not doing any damage, but getting the Imperials to let up for a minute. Glancing ahead, Jaim noticed the large cliff formations quickly approaching.

"Captain!" Jaim yelled back. "Large and menacing mountain range ahead? Am I clear to do something completely insane?"

"You really need to ask my permission for that?" Aeric yelled back, ducking another blaster bolt.

Flicking off another couple of bolts out the window at their pursuers, Jaim sped into a narrow canyon within the range.

[Andy 60]

Aston was trying to use the vehicles information terminal to route his datapad through to try and take out the video feeds when Jaim flung the bus down a narrow canyon and out of the city.

"Is it just me, or should we be holding on for dear life?" he muttered to himself, as he disconnected his equipment. He just couldn't get a good enough connection from the moving location to access the secure networks he needed to be able to put the surveillance out of action.