After a long trip in hyperspace in which Vale did his best to teach Kit how to somewhat-handle a lightsaber without removing her own or someone else's limbs (*Kit now has the Lightsaber skill at 3D+1...considering that somehow who doesn't have Force skills needs a 20 to hit anything with it....I wouldn't be trying this skill out too much, but it's your call!
); but it was a near thing....Eventually, the Rebel team came out of hyperspace in the Thakis system and Clark took over guiding Cal and Jackson to touch down in a field located near the primary city of Aza, in the Queendom of Azavam. A group of about 30 slug-thrower wielding, puple-skinned Thakisians were on hand to greet them as they came down the entry ramp, the good Professor in the lead. Clark spoke to them in Thakisian, a bit haltingly after a decade, but soon, friendly intentions were made clear, and the group was waved forward.....
The City was mostly two or three story buildings made of stone and/or wood and there was quite a bit of animal ridden and wheeled vehicles pulled by animals traffic, while the group of off-worlders certainly drew quite a bit of attention. Nobody seemed to stare too long....at least, no one other than children....and people seemed to look away quickly, almost as if they were embarrassed. The 'honor guard' fanned out all around the Rebels and they took a long, long walk to the most impressive structure in the place, a fortress built on a raised plateau that had large hills behind it. In the hills were numerous mining tunnels and Clark pointed out that THERE was where the Coaxium deposits were.
The Fortress had an impressive 3 meter tall wall built of stone approximately a meter thick, and a heavy iron (or similar) steel gate that a dozen guards pulled open to allow the visitors in. They were led to a large, inner room where they were told to wait and were given water and some of the local food dishes to eat while the head of the Honor Guard, one Tobiathus, went to inform Queen Harileth of their arrival. Clark frowned a bit as his keen mind ran the situation over and over again...something was off, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it....
Vale Starcloud could also feel that many of the nearby Aliens felt fear, anger and more than anything else.....SHAME; but he couldn't figure out why. His musings were interrupted by Tobiathus' return and the leader of the Queen's Guard said; "Our leader will see you now, but you must leave your weapons here, I'm afraid." Clark didn't remember ever being asked to leave his weapons with the Guard on his last trip, but then again, he HAD been by himself. The Rebels handed over their Blasters and other projectile and explosive weapons, but the Guards were NOT insistent on them handing over their melee weapons; so the various vibro-blades, Vale's Lightsaber and Zuul's knives remained on their persons...
Walking into the Queen's chamber, the Rebels were startled to see a Human on the throne and half-a-dozen other Humans and/or non-Thakisians in the chamber along with the couple dozen Queen's Guard Thakisian members, all of whom had leveled slug-throwing rifles at them. The man on the throne was dark-skinned, middle-aged and had a smirk of confidence and malice on his face as he regarded them.....an expression that soon gave way to surprised recognition as Cal suddenly gasped and the two clearly knew who the other was at the same time...
"Lothar?" Cal choked out; "Tak Dornan?", the man said at about the same time....moments before his face turned into a feral smile and a delighted chuckled bubbled forth...."Oh what an unexpected treat this is! Fandral will be THRILLED to see you again!", he got out between laughs. While all of the other Rebels except Vale turned to Cal with confusion in their eyes, Cal quickly explained; "He's Lothar Brightsun.....the second in command of a criminal group run by Fandral Escavion that I've had to.....deal with....in the past. He's very smart, ruthless and one of the fastest and best gun-hands in the Galaxy".
While THIS was going on, Vale was suddenly trembling from unseen signals from the Force; and he paid close attention to the OTHER non Thakisians in the room....5 were obviously thugs/guards of various races and they didn't particularly seem of interest, while two stood out. One was a snowy-white, massive alien humanoid covered in thick fur with 4 eyes on its head and a body mass that rivaled Zuul in both height and bulk....and seemed to be rather impenetrable to the Force....while the other was by FAR of the most interest to the young Jedi....
She was a human female, about his height and with an athletic build, a tan complexion and brown hair, scars all over her face.....and most interesting of all was the lightsaber that dangled from her belt and the menacing, yellow light that emanated from her eyes. Vale knew INSTANTLY that she was also a student of the Force....and in particular, of the Dark Side....
Lothar started talking again; "Well, well.....I'm not sure what brought you here Cal....but Fandral just recently learned from a pathetic excuse of a recent jail-bird about this place and the Coaxium they have, so he sent us to come and get it. You see, all we have to do is make a "Challenge" to these people, and if we win, they have to mine the Coaxium for us for a week and let us run things......to date, we've won these Challenges 3 weeks in a row. You see, all they have to do is have a 'Challenger' defeat either me in a gun-draw; my friend Tandivar (points to the White-furred alien, which Clark recognizes as a Talz) in hand-to-hand combat; or beat Xerris there (points to the yellow-eyed human woman with a Lightsaber) in a sword-fight, and we leave. So far....we're undefeated, and we've got almost 40 tons of Coaxium mined already, just about ready to load on our ship, which is tucked away safely behind some hills....now with you lot here, we'll have some more 'entertainment' before we leave"; he finished with an evil gleam in his eye....
OOC: The room is a big one, maybe 70 by 50 feet and inside the room there are about 25 Thakisian Guards with basically musket rifles pointed at you (Including three who have backpacks holding your various blasters and Flechette launchers, grenades, etc.) ; 5 human and/or other familiar Star Wars alien guards with Blasters; the Talz who doesn't seem to be carrying ANY weapons; Xerris with her Lightsaber and Lothar who has a Heavy Blaster Pistol on a thigh holster and who some of you have heard about as a RIDICULOUSLY fast and accurate shot.
