Old freinds

Posted on Sun Mar 28th, 2021 @ 8:32pm by Lieutenant Kor' de'leia & Lieutenant Jafan & Lieutenant Melvyn Kosta

Mission: Scoundrels, Cuttthroats and Rogues
Location: Narshadda
Timeline: Day 1 at 0000

Still dazed, half-blind from the flash, his hearing gone along with his balance, Melvyn was unable to offer any resistance as someone wrenched the blaster from his hand and slapped magnetic cuffs around his wrists. He could only barely hear a muffled rumble of voices, as if he were underwater.

It was a few minutes before his senses returned to him. There was something lukewarm and sticky in his ears - blood, perhaps - and tears still streamed down his face, but his hearing and sight were beginning to clear up.

" - get the rabble around here in line."

Only two stormtroopers guarded him, which might have been a little insulting if Melvyn's future hadn't seemed so bleak right now.

"Have to teach them not to cross the Empire. But I hope we can leave soon. I don't like this place."

There was a crackle of static and one of the troopers lifted a hand to his helmet to activate his comlink. "Yes ?...Affirmative. ... We were attacked by local gangs. Two squads went to secure the perimeter while we guard the prisoner. ... Yes sir." The trooper exchanged a look with the other one, then looked down at Melvyn and kicked him.

"Get up, traitor."

Wincing, Melvyn awkwardly gathered to his knees. It was hard to get upright, between his faltering senses and the magnetic cuffs. As he finally stood up, there was a crackle of electricity and blue arcs danced around the cuffs. Melvyn found himself back on his knees without knowing how he'd ended up there.

"Oops." Even behind the helmet, Melvyn could hear the trooper's smirk. "My hand slipped."

He swallowed back a snarl. Getting him riled up was what they wanted. He wouldn't give them this satisfaction with his last few hours of life - for he had no doubt a summary execution was all that awaited him at this point.

His two guards pushed him forward, impatiently shoving him when he didn't move fast enough for them. They went back to the street corner where he had first run into them, the edge of the duracrete wall blackened and chipped where the blaster shots had missed him.

"TK-418 ! Over here !" One of his guards called out, and two more troopers approached, escorting another prisoner ; a twi'lek clad in a dress, the torn fabric even more revealing than originally intended by its designer. She wore cuffs similar to the one that adorned Melvyn's wrists, and limped heavily.

"What's that ?" Asked one of Melvyn's guards, head tilted in a way that suggested a leering smile behind the helmet.

"Some kind of rebel. She shot TS-346. The Captain figured an interrogation and public execution might be a good warning to others."

"Get it straight, I slit his throat, idiot." Kor hissed out.

"Good company for our traitor," one of the other troopers sniffed. "The others still fighting the gangs ? How long can it take to shoot some rabble ?"

The first trooper took a white metallic remote and pointed it at the twi'lek, then Melvyn. The cuffs on their wrists made a distinctive beeping sound. He knew what that meant, it was a technique used to ferry around larger groups of prisoners. If either of them tried to run, they'd get acquainted with a cordial 50.000 volts.

And, to make things even better, that twi'lek looked quite vindictive.

Kor muttered something particularly obscene in Huttese as she dropped to her knees and then to the ground as her leg gave out on her again. The look she gave the troopers was one that should have gotten her shot on the spot, but she was already in custody, so it was their time to have fun. She spat on the ground eyeing the one with the remote.

The trooper shoved her back against a nearby wall. The pain in her leg at this point was excruciating, but she didn't cry out, holding her pain and allowing it to fuel her bloodlust for her captors.

As the troopers stepped back she looked over at Melvyn. "What did you do?"

Melvyn didn't have time to ponder whether or not he wanted to add "sympathizing with criminals" to the long list of charges under his name before one of the stormtroopers backhanded the twi'lek.

"Be silent, scum."

Melvyn offered the twi'lek a helpless shrug. She must be some kind of gangmember, because who else would be down here shooting stormtroopers ? But he dress didn't match that impression, and the troopers had called her "some kind of rebel"... which didn't really mean anything. At least he was fairly sure he could count on her to act if they were given the opportunity to escape.

"Let's get going," the sergeant said, his rank made as plain by his orange epaulette as by his commanding tone that brooked no argument.

"But the lieutenant - "

"I got orders directly from the captain. We're to head to the rally point and load the prisoners in the shuttle."

"Yes, sir." The trooper shoved Melvyn forward and he only barely kept his balance.

Next to him, the twi'lek hissed as she put her weight on her wounded leg. She was limping heavily and Melvyn wondered whether that was real or just an act to stall, because once they were on that shuttle they'd be as good as dead.

Well, he wouldn't be on that shuttle, he thought. He'd rather be shot trying to escape than endure whatever it was the Empire had in store for him. He glanced at the twi'lek and their eyes met. Hers looked cool and calculating.

"Walk faster," snapped the twi'lek's guard.

Kor gave the trooper a look that should have gotten her shot.. again.. These imperial bastards had to slip up sometime soon. It just took the right kind of coercion. "I'm coming. I might move along faster if you put a med kit to my leg after you cut me." She was preparing to make an appeal of abuse while in custody, but the burn of electrical voltage coursing through her wrists threw her off. She said something quite derogatory in huttese.

Melvyn didn't hear the twi'lek's answer, because just then his own guard shoved him forward again and suddenly he was on his knees again, blue arcs dancing on the cuffs. Behind him he heard the twi'lek's stifled groan of pain. Obviously he'd stepped too far away from her and the cuffs did what they were designed for.

"TK-418, AT-978, enough playing around," the sergeant snapped. "We need to get out of here."

Just then the familiar whine of fighter engines resounded in the far off distance and Melvyn's eyes found the sky, or tried to amidst the grey towers of Nar Shaddaa. The sound was still too distant to identify but getting close fast, and he could already tell it wasn't Imperial.

Kor made a slight smirk at the shine of the X-wing's engine's closing in on them. Thata boy Jafan! She leaned in on her wounded leg planning on getting as much mileage out of the wounded bird routine as she could. The pain was there, but nothing she couldn't deal with, especially if it meant her life.

Jafan skimmed along the surface, just high enough to not hit anything. The signal he'd been tracking was approaching ahead. Whoever the signal marked was on foot. As he flew over directly over the spot, Jafan saw the scene. Two people, one being his Twi-lek partner, and a random man, both cuffed and being escorted by a squad of troopers. His base instincts nearly made him flip his X-Wing into attack mode and light them up, but there was too much opportunity for collateral damage. He circled around for a second pass, another idea in his mind.

The stormtroopers were not pilots, and they only realized who was coming when the X-wing came in their line of sight. To their credit they didn't panic, although they did start running.

"Take cover !" the sergeant yelled, waving at the nearest alley.

The X-wing flew above them in ionic thunder but surprisingly enough it didn't shoot. Although, presumably, the pilot had more pressing concerns considering the levels of Imperial activity in this particular neighborhood. And yet... instead of going on his way he turned back - looking for a better angle to shoot maybe ?

Coming around and flying downward, Jafan did lock into attack position, something he seemed to be doing a lot today. As the X-Wing approached, he said, "Alright, Speck, get ready for a hard burn."

They flew as close to the surface as possible and Jafan yelled, "NOW!!" The X-Wing quickly accelerated and blew passed the entire group. Surely that'd be more than enough for Kor. He turned one more time and saw a small opening for some theatrics, and laid down a quick barrage into the ground. That would get their attention!

Speck then bleeped something at Jafan, which made him look at the scanner. The Ties were back. Jafan cracked his neck on one side and then the other. "Alright, let's go!"

Melvyn's attention was so focused on the rebel craft that he almost missed it when the twi'lek made her move. Thankfully for her, the storm troopers were equally distracted.

Jafan making another pass on the Imps was just the chance Kor needed. She had been a prisoner before, likely would be again, but she had a feeling this was going to have a very permanent end if she let herself be led on to that shuttle with the other undesirables. The biggest problem at the moment was that damned trooper with the controls to the zap cuffs on her wrists. She limped herself over toward the officer, pretending to dash for cover from the incoming X-wing assault. At the right moment in the mayhem of blaster fire bouncing around them, she hurled herself into the trooper. He spun to shake her off of him raising up the control to the zap cuffs. In a fluid movement she spun herself around the trooper and wrapped her cuffed arms around his neck as he depressed the controls. Electricity once more pounded into her wrists in a numbing rhythm of fire. Similarly it shot into the neck of the trooper she held, who dropped the remote and desperately clutched toward his throat as he convulsed in pain before dropping to the ground.

She had targeted the man with the remote control. Clever, that, Melvyn thought approvingly. He didn't hesitate as he went for the nearest guard, kicking him in the knee as he made a grab for his rifle, and hit him with the butt of his own weapon. Being a defector had its perks ; he knew exactly where to hit to bypass the armour. He'd used to hate the mandatory hand-to-hand training three times a week, now he was thankful for it.

The lightning-brief red light of a blaster shot made him swirl around. The sergeant had taken a shot at the twi'lek, and somehow had managed to miss - to be fair she was very fast. She was diving for cover, having neutralized a second stormtrooper in the meantime, and the sergeant prepared to shoot her again just as the X-wing circled back again.

"Hey," Melvyn called, lifting the gun he'd wrenched from the trooper.

That was enough to make the sergeant pause, finger on the trigger, as he looked up. Melvyn's shot hit him square in the chest and he crumpled like a ragdoll, while Melvyn groaned in disgust at the realization that his gun was set on stun.

Kor picked up the remote from where the trooper had dropped it and quickly pulled in closer to her zap mate. She looked at the device dumbfounded. Stupid Imperial contractors didn't make anything obvious besides the big red button that was going to electrocute them again.

"Forget it," Melvyn said when he realized what the twi'lek was doing. "It's locked with a code. We need to go." He grimaced a bit at the we part. "At least until we can find a mechanic, hacker or electrician with the skills to deactivate the cuffs," he amended. "Then we can go our separate ways."

A new swarm of TIEs appeared in the sky, and at least two shuttles. Reinforcements.

"Can you walk ?" Melvyn asked, eyeing the deep gash in the twi'leks calf. He really, really hoped he wouldn't have to carry her.

Kor looked down at her leg, her dress was more ruined than it had been before. She muttered an obscenity. "THis thing cost me a months pay..." Her leg was bleeding heavily but still was wrapped from when she roughly dressed it after crashing. She would live. "I can walk." she responded. "Probably better than you." she stated as a sudden wave of pain made her knee buckle.

"Huh, right," Melvyn said skeptically. Well, she was still upright so he would take her word for it.

Her lekku straightened in embarrassment. "Fine, where we headed?" she asked.

"So help me, I wish I knew," he muttered. While it was not the first time he went to Nar Shaddaa, he'd always kept to the more... civilized upper levels. There was only one place he could think of, and that was if it hadn't been busted yet by the Empire. It was a long shot ; but anything beat staying here, and time was running out fast. "We need to get to District 102. I... know a place where they might be able to help us."

Kor gave her unsolicited companion a sidelong glance when he mentioned the district, the same general area curiously she and Jafan had been holed up in before their busted attempt at recruiting pilots. She held her tongue to see where this was taking her.

"Let's go this way then. We're bound to find a lift sooner or later." Melvyn pointed to the end of the street that looked marginally more welcoming than the other side, with street lamps that actually worked and slightly smaller heaps of garbage.

The twi'lek nodded and started walking. She looked absurdly out of place in her evening gown, limping, blood seeping through the makeshift bandage on her leg. Absurd and vulnerable. But she'd also only just killed two armoured, trained men. Melvyn was not about to underestimate her. Plus he did not exactly cut a dashing figure himself, dirty, dishevelled, his face bloodied. He found it hard to breathe still ; the local atmosphere did not agree with him.

The streets had not exactly been crowded before but now they were positively empty. An Imperial raid would do that to a neighborhood, especially one so unsavoury as... this. It was hard to believe some people lived like this. Only the most desperate, or most hardened, of criminals... Melvyn had to wonder what that made him. Probably closer to the desperate end of the spectrum.

Trawling the dregs of Narshadda was no picnic on a regular day. Kor was not having a regular day. At least this... criminal? she had linked up with was leading them into slightly more upscale slums than they were escaping from. Despite his beat up face, he looked too pretty for a common Narshaddian. His eyes scanned the shadows, but not in the way a street smart criminal would. More like military and not one that had done much street patrolling. Hell, she would pick him for a mark had she been lurking in the shadows.

Belatedly the thought struck him that leading an unknown criminal to a rebel hideout may not be the best idea he'd ever had. He didn't have much of a choice given the circumstances, but that thought still spurred him to ask,

"So... What did you do ? They said you killed a storm trooper but I assume something must have led to this streak of violence ?"

"He looked at me funny." she shot back. A slight smirk crossed her face as she thought of her stats for the day. 'A Storm trooper' she was up six by her own count, and that was with the bum leg.

An explosion, followed by blaster fire in the distance, made Melvyn look up. It appeared that one building had gone up in flames. Lookes like the storm troopers were still fighting the local gangs.

"We need to hurry. Need help ?" He offered the twi'lek his arm, unsure how his offer of assistance would be received.

Despite her pride of self sufficiency, the leg really was hurting and the longer they walked, the less she was going to be able to use the thing. She linked her arm with his. One lekku curled over onto his shoulder as they hobbled up the street. "A gentleman. Hard to find one in these parts. So I would guess you are not from around here. What brought you to the wrong side of the law tonight?" she inquired.

"I picked the wrong friends," Melvyn said. It pretty much summed up his life right now. "But I'm sure I couldn't dream of better company to be on the wrong side of the law with." He smiled at her, with perhaps the barest hint of sarcasm. She had taken his arm but she wasn't heavy, which was fortunate given his current condition. That street looked endless and inhospitable, and if he was fully honest he had no idea where they were headed. "Speaking of, do you have a name ?"

"Hera. Hera Syndulla." she said with no qualms about dropping the name of a dangerous rebel. Twi'leks needed what heroes they could.

That name rang a bell, of course. Syndulla had made it on the Empire's list of most wanted criminals long ago, a list that all Imperial officers were required to know by heart. Except... the skin colour was wrong. "Nice to meet you." He stopped briefly to offer his free hand. "I'm, huh, Corvin Frey." The twi'lek looked about as impressed by his fake name as he was by hers. "Forgive me for pointing it out, but you're not exactly wearing the right outfit for tonight's activities. Someone bust a party ?"

Kor relished hearing a cue to make up a story for the evening. "You have no idea. I was having a lovely evening at the villa of Lord Grakkus. We were entertaining Imperial dignitaries. Fine liquors, cracknels and delicacies you could never imagine. Suddenly the alarms went off. Our guests cleared out of the party which left me all dressed up and nowhere to go. I was headed to Klub Azziks in the upper levels when some idiot crashed his fighter on top of me. I am lucky I got away with only this leg injury."

She rather liked the notion of how she was making up her evening and genuinely felt it would have been a prefered way to have spent the evening... besides not being stuck on Nar Shadda at all.

She pointed to Melvin's uniform. "And you Mr. Frey, did you miss out on a costume party?" her hand gripped her dagger in case she got to add another imperial to her list for the night. But her mind reasoned why would he have been in custody of the troopers like she was. She gave him an apprising glance. There was more to him than he let on.

Her obviously fictional account at least had the merit of being entertaining. Melvyn bit back a smile. Unfortunately, there really was no good explanation to justify wearing a torn up Imperial uniform while taking a stroll in the slums of Nar Shaddaa, so he would have to rely on a story just as fanciful.

"Well, I was hired as an extra for a holoseries, called "the Aces of Chandrila". He pulled at his stiff collar. "I was heading to the photoshoot but I think the taxi made a mistake and left me at the wrong address. And then before I knew it stormtroopers were arresting me on accounts of impersonating an Imperial officer." He spoke with the peeved and upset tone he'd heard members of the Onderonian aristocracy use when the champagne wasn't just the right temperature. "Can you imagine ? Such a devastating misunderstanding, that could have had grave consequences. I'll write a complaint to the Empire and demand an official apology."

Kor squinted at Corvin a little. "I love that show!" she exclaimed. "Last I checked you were shooting in Hanna City. What would bring you to Har Shadda. I know production costs are cheap, but how did you convince Kray Korbin to set foot on this moon, let alone without getting kidnapped by hungry fans. Can you get me his autograph?!" she said enthusiastically, albeit completely unbelieving. His overall bearing was impressive. She had hung around the rich and idle long enough to recognize a truthful affectation of faux-outrage. Besides, what actors walk around murdering Imperial officers. Well, she did, but that was different.

"Well," he said, warming up to his subject, "the main shooting is still going on in Hannah city but they decided to cut costs by shooting extra scenes on Nar Shaddaa. Come to think of it, I'm not sure they had the shooting permit from the local government. Oh... maybe that is why they arrested me..."

As they walked - or, more accurately, limped - ahead, Melvyn noticed a Zabrak watching them from behind a rusty dumpster, hand on his pocket where a weapon must be concealed. Then his eyes stopped on Melvyn's uniform, narrowed, and he vanished in an alley. So this was why they hadn't been assaulted yet. People were afraid of the Empire's retribution, in the midst of the current raid. Such protection was flimsy at best, and there was no doubt that as soon as the last stormtrooper left the area if would be business as usual. Melvyn hoped to be long gone by then.

"The local fauna is scared, I think," he observed conversationally.

Kor kept her eyes on the situation around them as they walked up the dark lonely street. They were being watched, of that she was certain. Her hand stayed on her knife. "They are jumpy too." she observed.

They hit the end of the street and trudged onwards, towards the taller buildings where an elevator must at some point allow access to the upper levels. Melvyn wasn't sure how much longer they'd have to walk but the twi'lek was going forward without a word of complaint, though her leg sometimes shook a little under her weight, and twice she grabbed his arm harder he was sure than she had intended. He still had his credit chip. As soon as they got to a higher level he would find an automated shop to buy some essentials and put some order in their appearance.

The twi'lek stopped abruptly, stopping him at the same time while in her free hand she clutched her ceremonial blade. Without pausing to think Melvyn lifted his borrowed blaster rifle, scanning the dark spots in the street. But when danger came, it came from behind. A purr of engines reached their ears only moments before two antique motospeeders flew past them and stopped, effectively blocking the street. Without turning his head, Melvyn felt the presence of more thugs behind him, and his back crawled.

Kor as apt to appreciate a classic vehicle. The motospeeders were not the finest examples of their models, but they were obviously kept well by their owners. Chances were the riders cared more about them than their own miserable lives.

"Hello, visitors." One of the motospeeder riders adressed them in heavily accented basic. Only the bottom half of his face was visible underneath the helmet, but it was enough to tell he was a trandoshan. "Put down your weapons, money, and anything else you have in your pockets, and - "

Melvyn's blaster shot hit him in the shoulder. Melvyn swore as he jumped to the side ; he'd been aiming for the neck. Still, it was enough for the trandoshan to slump over his motospeeder in shock and anger. Without looking what his companion of infortune was up to he spun on his heels to unleash a burst of blaster fire towards the thugs whose presence he'd guessed behind them.

Shoot first. Kor liked that about Corvin, or whatever his name was. While blasters weren't her preferred way of fighting, they served their purpose. Of course she was now the girl holding a knife in a blaster fight. She quickly closed the distance between her and the second Motospeeder. She vaulted toward the rider in a backflip that brought her heels first into its chest. She alighted atop him in a crouch, swinging the heavy iron of the zapp cuff on her hands across his head and rendering him unconscious. This was getting fun.

The street dissolved in a chaos of blaster fire, screams of pain and growl of engines. The fact was that assaulting people with motospeeders was pretty dumb, Melvyn thought as he dove for cover behind a speeder - or rather, the shell of a speeder whose entrails had long since been looted. He shot another burst, making a decent attempt at not hitting his companion of infortune. He was pretty glad to have her on his side right now, as disreputable as she might be.

He couldn't tell how many thugs there were but he counted two on the ground already. From the corner of his eye he saw the twi'lek perform an improbable backflip to get behind the second motospeeder driver, blade in hand and a smile on her face that reminded him exactly how pointy twi'lek teeth were.

He was aiming at a third thug - another trandoshan - when fire burst through his shoulder and, with a cry of pain, he retreated behind the broken speeder. A quick look revealed that thankfully it had only been a glancing blow, enough to sear through his uniform and leave a nasty looking burn, but not incapacitating. A more urgent issue was that the thugs were flanking him, he realized.

As the blaster bolts bounced randomly around her, she saw Corvin was getting most of the attention... being the one with the blaster. She made a quick assement of the motospeeder of the assailant she had just knocked out. The engine was running. A healthy length of durasteel chain was stowed just below the rider's seat. She smiled wickedly as she mounted the bike and wrapped the chain around her hand. She cued up the sound system on the bike and set the receiver to a Nar Shaddan club frequency and dropped the bass levels real low. The throng of Huttese pop music blasted from the bike as she spun it around towards where Corvin was being beset by Trandoshans.

She slid the bike to the side knocking a Trandoshan against a nearby wall as she spun the chain whacking another to the ground. She looked down at Corvin as he fought a biker off of him. "You coming?" she asked, extending her chain wrapped hand as she revved the motospeeder.

Yep, he definitely preferred to be on her side. Melvyn pushed off the limp body of the thug off him and took the twi'lek's offered hand. Her grip was warm and firm.

"Thanks !" He shouted over the thrumming bass of... whatever that sound was supposed to be. He wouldn't venture to call it music.

He had no choice once on the bike but to wrap his arms around the twi'lek's mid-section as she made the engine roar and the motospeeder started going at an alarming speed. If there were speed limits down here there was no doubt Hera was breaking them. The buildings on either side of the street became a blur as they raced onwards, leaving behind any potential reinforcements for the gang they had so soundly beaten up.

"I think you should head towards that tower," Melvyn shouted. It was fortunate that his face ended up being so close to Hera's head. The ruckus of the engine and the beat of the music made his voice barely audible to his own ears.

Kor felt Corvin's arms wrapped around her stomach. He didn't hesitate to hang on tight. Smart boy. She gunned the engine up and rocketed the speeder ahead. She had been in close proximity to enough males to know the feel of attraction, nervousness and brutality. Corvin seemed confident but reserved. But he was not rejecting being close to her. Her lekku curled back and lightly cradled his head, sensing his body temperature, pulse rate and latent pheromones. She targeted the indicated tower. It was getting close to the sector she had just stayed in the previous night. Curioser and curioser.

They definitely made better progress now that they rode a vehicle, rather than helplessly limp onwards. What Melvyn found particularly interesting was Hera's skill driving it. When she narrowly avoided a streetlamp, then managed a tight slalom between a dumpster and a half-collapsed building, it became very clear that she had a pilot's reflexes. Not just a pretty face and a deadly martial artist, then.

The motospeeder stopped at the bottom of the tower where, as Melvyn had guessed, there was a sign indicating the presence of a lift to upper levels. He slid off the motospeeder, wincing a bit as various aches and pains flared back to life when his feet hit the duracrete ground, and lifted his blaster rifle. One could never be too careful.

"I'll check it out," he told Hera. "Keep the engine running."

Kor turned out the headlamps and backed the swoop deeper into the shadows. Grudgingly she turned off the music, she wasn't driving anyways. "Don't wander too far." she said teasingly holding up her braceleted hand.

Obviously he couldn't go further than a few meters ahead without triggering the electric cuffs but that was enough to peer inside the building. The elevator was automated, with a pay terminal on one side. There was a Duros sitting in a corner, and Melvyn almost pointed his rifle at him, before he realized the alien was completely stoned and presumably not aware of its own surroundings. Turning back, he signalled to Kor that it was safe.

Kor turned off the bike and pocketed the ignition card. Shame to give up on a good ride. Who knows, they might get lucky and it would still be there later. She doubted it. You didn't leave a classic swoop bike out of a garage. Ease come... She wrapped the durasteel chain around her shoulders and followed after Corvin.

The prices listed on the terminal were affordable for Melvyn but probably steep for the residents, which was probably a way to keep them down there. The lift only went up three levels though, which meant they'd have to find another one, but at least they could leave this district and lose their Imperial pursuers.

"Let's go," Melvyn said, fishing his credit chip out of his pocket. "My treat." he got them two tickets for level 57 Blue, and the lift started moving at a sluggish pace.

"You know how to treat a girl." she said playfully. She rarely had to pay for lift rides. If her companion of the moment wouldnt cover it, she had the slicing interface her in underwire to trick the machines into a free ride.

Through the plasteel doors they soon had a perfect view of the whole district. A building that looked like an abandoned factory was burning in the distance. Several flashes of red suggested that the fight was still going on strong between the storm troopers and the gangs, which was probably the main reason why Melvyn and Hera had not had too much trouble escaping the area. Several flights of TIEs were still patrolling and Melvyn felt an unexpected pang of regret when he looked at them. He could not find it in him to keep serving the Empire, not after the Otta V massacre, but he had loved his TIE fighter. The thought he'd never fly one again felt... strange. Sorrowful.

Kor looked at her melancholic traveling companion. He was nursing some deep hurt. "So we are up here, lovely view and all. What do we do now?"

"I think the first order of business is to patch ourselves up," Melvyn said, shaking off his unwelcome sentiment of nostalgia. "Ditch the clothes, find some emergency supplies. This place is chock-full of bounty hunters and I'm pretty sure they'll be looking for us." He examined the cuff around his left wrist. They had been fortunate that the stormtroopers had been too busy playing with the electric settings to think to clip the magnetic cuffs together. "Then we can worry about getting rid of these things."

An arc-cutter would be helpful. Never had the joy of ending up in these before, but something should be able to burn them off. Or maybe a low level magpulse to fry its internal circuit.

"No, that won't work." Melvyn shook his head. "Those things are designed so that they'll release a deadly voltage if tampered with. We need someone who knows what they're doing to cut them off. In the meantime, I guess we're stuck together." He offered her a regretful smile. "As soon as we get off this elevator I suggest we look for supplies and at least wash off the blood in a public bathroom, if we can find one.

Kor looked Corvin up and down. She found the uniform annoying. And it fit a little too well to have been picked up second hand. Her eye narrowed. Why would an Imp be on the run like this? It suddenly flashed in her mind this wasn't the only imperial she had seen high tailing it away from his own people. What were the odds of that. "Sounds like a good idea. Shame, this was a great dress. You are not getting me at my best. I could really use a shower." she said flirtatiously. She was wary of this likely Imperial, but it was safer to keep an adversary close and preferably aroused until they needed to be removed from the equation. She calculated potential avenues for escape, but the damned zapp cuffs would not let her get very far. Her fingers lazily moved to her knife stashed in the small of her back. The cuffs wouldn't come off, but she was certain his hands would.

"A hot shower would be nice," Melvyn agreed wistfully. Unfortunately it was unlikely to happen anytime soon. He kept watching Hera from the corner of his eyes, even as he affected to be looking at the buildings outside slowly passing by. She was watching him too, her body tense though she bantered as though nothing was amiss. Clearly she trusted him as much as he trusted her.