With the auction delayed until the next day, Cortree Tincove, Gisaku Saberota, Jaden Windu and Mazer Val’Zian set out to do some exploring of the station.
While Jaden and Gisaku sought fruitlessly to find other potential backers, Mazer seemed concerned with other matters and requested Cortree come with him. The pair ended up at the quarters of Commander Piter Gorlen and found Rilu Secura coming out of it. The pair tailed her into the Red Quarter, an area of the station for higher level socialites. Mazer in his DESIGNER THREADS blended right in with the crowd, practically disappearing next to his friend Cortree in his mechanic’s jumpsuit.
The Station’s security didn’t take kindly to Cortree or his ensemble and detained him in an effort to teach him how things worked around the station. Mazer on the other hand had simply vanished into thin air…
An hour later, Cortree was released and found his way back to the Crucible to meet up with the others. As Gisaku and Jaden returned to the ship, something felt…wrong. Jaden, who had been sensing a darkness in the Force shadowing him all night long felt that same presence in the landing bay. Being weaker in the Force, Gisaku made use of his CYBORG BODY’s Thermographic vision mode and found a shape concealed in the corner, hiding from them.
Gisaku motioned to the others and the trio surrounded the form, the Cyborg looming over it with Cortree holding a blaster pistol on it.
“You can’t hide from us., " The Jedi General said as he sized the form up, “Who are you?”
The form turned out to be a humanoid woman in a black hood. She reached out and FORCE PULLED the blaster from Cortree’s hand and FORCE LEAPED upwards. The General, having sized up the foe, drew his Lightsaber and just barely cut her cloak as she blurred past and landed up in the utility pipes above.
Cortree lamented as pieces of his blaster pistol fell from the ceiling onto floor. He then grabbed an ascension platform and the trio pursed the Hooded Woman.
Gisaku’s body gave him strength but not speed, making him unable to pursue the Woman as she moved effortlessly away. Jaden and Cortree decided that cleverness was needed.
Jaden used the Force to slow her as Cortree used his own Mechaderu ability to slice the maintenance computer to lower the BLAST DOORS. However, the Woman was too fast and she barely managed to make it through the blast doors and into the dark parts of the station just as the doors slammed shut. They were trapped in the landing bay by the doors and could not escape. They would have to wait for someone in maintenance to reopen the blast doors for them from the outside and that could take awhile. They were a bit surprised that Mazer reappeared then asking, “What’d I miss?”
Concerned about his infatuation with Rilu, the others asked him why he abandoned Cortree. The former scoundrel responded, “I needed a distraction so i could follow her. You did your job well and I found out where she is hold up.”
The Jedi followed Mazer to Rilu’s room on the station only to find it ransacked and Rilu grievously wounded. Mazer used his healing powers to stabilize Rilu as best he could and took her to people he knew who could help. Having been on the station before Maze realized that he couldn’t take the mortally wounded Twi’lek to the hospital. She would be an easy target there. Instead he led Gisaku to an underworld doctor he knew of on the station who would take care of her no questions asked. For a fee of course.
Jaden investigated the scene while Gisaku and Maze got her to the doctor. He made a couple of startling discoveries while looking over the ruins of Rilu’s apartment. First off the door, which at first glance looked like it had been shot open with a blaster, turned out to have been cut open with a intense plasma cutter. Or a lightsaber. The blasts to the lock appeared to have been an attempt to conceal the nature of the original entry. Second, the light blaster that they had found next to Rilu had been fired several times. Jaden was convinced that it had in fact been used to blast the door and to shoot the twi’lek to again cover for what he believed were lightsaber wounds. Given the mysterious Force using figure they had encountered in the docking bay earlier he was starting to wonder if they were dealing with Dark Jedi. Or even Sith.
With these dark thoughts Jaden, Gisaku and Cortree made their way to the auction. Maze had decided to remain behind and protect Rilu. On board a TRAM CAR that crossed the station, the Jedi were attacked by a large group of WEEQUAY and NIKTO MERCENARIES armed Stun Batons and Blasters. They tried to call for help, but found their communications jammed. With nowhere to run, and surrounded by enemies and innocent civilians, the Jedi had no choice but to fight.
Cortree held his ground with his new jury-rigged blaster as Jaden tried to fend them off with his own Jedi training. Neither he nor the General drew lightsabers because they were unwilling to give away that they were Jedi. This limited Jaden considerably. Jedi General Gisaku Saberota on the other hand fared much better in a fist fight and for once was glad to have a CYBORG BODY.
The Mercenaries tried to stun Saberota with their batons, but one sweep of his mighty arms relieved them of their weapons. The group tried to punch the General out, only for their hands to recoil in pain after punching ARMOR PLATING. Playing the part of a bodyguard, Saberota fought with brute force. He kicked one mercenary into the wall while grabbing, punching and elbowing others to the ground. Cortree blasted away with his pistol set to stun dropping several of the mercenaries.
When one brave mercenary from the group stood before Saberota, the General grabbed him by the head and THREW him down the tram, through a window into the next car.
Cortree then shot out the overhead light above the group before him and Gisaku into them as bodies flew out of the darkness. The trio finished the fight like master Jedi without a single unnecessary loss of life.
Jaden found among the mercenaries a datapad from Shogo The Hutt, ordering them to detain their group with killing them. Obviously a move to reduce the number of bidders for the auction. Similar attacks were ordered by the Hutt on the other bidders. Realizing that lives were at stake and concerned for Selan Mela, the professor from Coruscant University that they were pooling their bid with they attempted to contact security. But they couldn’t get through the jamming. Cortree got to a console and using incredible skill sliced through the jamming causing a feedback loop that caused the jamming device to explode.
When the Tram arrived at the station, the Jedi informed Kel Markatta and his security of the scheme, fearing the other bidders would be attacked too. Their instincts were rewarded when Cortree found reports of disturbances throughout the The Wheel.
There was a report of a brief firefight and of an airlock that had been opened illegally around the Imperial’s quarters. It seemed clear to Cortree that the Imperial Stormtroopers had made short work of the Hutt Thugs and then tossed their bodies out an airlock. The security force of Espos protecting Commander Piter Gorlen were far less efficient. There had been a terrible firefight around Gorlen’s quarters with many bystanders suffering injuries from the indiscriminate fire the Espos had used to defend themselves. There were also reports of a disturbance around Rhaan Cheska’s quarters and he had been hospitalized. He was no match for the mercenaries without his BG-173E Bodyguard Droid. Finally, it appeared that Shoto the Hutt had been attacked as well although the fight had not resulted in any casualties. Cor found no mention of Selan Mela or the other scholars.
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