Survival, Dark Times 2

[Revan Jast]

Kurt nodded and left the building. Using his grappling hook, he pulled himself up to the roof of another building and crouched there, waiting. Peering over the edge, he saw security forces gathering at street corners and moving in one direction.

He stood and looked again at the setting sun, a slight breeze kicking up and blowing against his face. He almost thought he could see a grim face in the clouds... and then it was gone.

"Now all I gotta do is wait," he said.

[hk47fan]

Marlena

I could feel the ship going out of control, and I watched as everyone made their last thoughts...their last sayings, and it truly became final for me. This could really be it...we may be about to die, here and now.

But...we all had lived full lives...there were alot of bad sides to this, such as Li and Sem being so young and being in danger, but most of the people here...would die honorably.

I had defeated Mona. She may have caused this, but I beat her...someone finally struck her down. I highly doubted that we'd see her again for a long time, if ever...for some reason, I just felt like I had done the right thing.

I made peace with my two estranged children: Nait and Scout. I even got to watch my grandchildren being brought into this world, I helped my daughter give birth...and that was more fufilling than anything. After years of being plagued by that guilt, I had tied that situation up once and for all.

I found out alot of horrifying things, but I made it through...I overcame all the hurtles and shocks about Mona, Ivy, and Sonas. I even got to see Sora again...he may hate me right now, but at least...at least he knew the truth.

I had found love three times. With three wonderful men.

I reached out into the Force, closing my eyes.

Declan, I love you.

I opened them, and looked to Naos...I could feel his worry in the Force. His worry for his children...I could see it in his eyes, and it radiated off of him.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. "They'll be fine, Naos," I told him.

He simply nodded, but I knew that deep inside, he was strong, even in what may be his final moments, even when he worried for his two beautiful children.

I've made so many wonderful friends recently...if I die here, then my life ended on a very high note. Despite all the tragedies...I've found so much happiness.

I lightly smiled one last time, before I felt a huge impact, and a gigantic amount of pain, before everything immediately went black.

Trika

"Your baby needs to just chill!" I snapped as she began having contractions again. "Okay, okay, sorry...we're getting close to the Soft Heart."

R2 beeped once again as we walked, and Threepio began to speak. "R2 is right, Mistress Leia, don't get too worked up!!!" he exclaimed.

I could see the Soft Heart right up ahead. I rushed forward, taking Leia with me but not pulling her too hard like I was earlier, and Chewie and the droids managed to keep up. I was going as fast as I could, knowing that we had to get there before security did.

Finally, after only fifteen more seconds of running, we all burst through the door. Han, Miss Haltzilakas, Admiral Ackbar, the Killer crew, Memah, and even a few other Troks were all inside.

Caitlin immediately jumped up. "Oh thank goodness, you're back! We were all starting to get worried!"

"Good, we have a doctor!" I yelled, looking to everyone, panting slightly. "Okay, good news: Most of us made it back safely...now, bad news: Not all of us made it back and Leia is-"

Suddenly, however, I heard the door to the Soft Heart literally burst open. I whirled around to see security officers standing there.

"Oh shit!" I yelled.

"Freeze! We are under orders from Supreme Admiral Sora Trok to take all of you into custody!" the lead officer yelled.

[Revan Jast]

Dawn immediately stepped forward, hulking over the officers. Bringing up his dual laser cannons, he snarled at them. "I've been wanting to shoot somebody for a while now."

Selas moved next to him and placed a hand on his arm. "No, Dawn. Do not shoot them. We're supposed to do this."

"Hell naw!" Dawn said, looking over at him. "We've got a pregnant woman here, Mr. Admiral's daughter none the less, plus we're all friends of his. He's gone crazy, and there's no way I'm going to let him treat us like this! I'm not going down without a fight!"

Dawn fired once, but Selas used the Force to push the guard out of the way. "Dawn, don't make me put you down. I'll do it."

The large cyborg shifted a bit, then growled quietly and backed away. "Fine, you win."

"Thank you," Selas said. Dawn said nothing, only walked back towards the bar.

Turning to the guards, the once dark jedi extended his hands side by side. "Let's go. What are we waiting for?"

[Rain]

Memah

"You two!" One of the guards barked at me.

"What!?" I exclaimed.

"You heard me, move it!" He snapped. I was seriously not in the mood for crabby security guards right now!

Behind him I seen another attempt to move Leia. Chewbacca roared and knocked the guard back. "Chewie!" She protested, "Stop. I'll be fine, and besides, I don't need stress right now." She looked at the man Chewie knocked down, "But what I do need is a doctor!"

The guard who was speaking to me turned to Leia. "Listen you little schutta, move now before we make you move!"

She put a hand out to stop the Wookiee from charging at the man. She calmly wlaked up to face him. "Excuse me?" She said firmly, making direct eye contact with him, "I'm the step-daughter of Sora Trok, and whilst you may be under his orders I can assure you that if he finds out something happened to my babies, he is not going to be happy. Now I'm telling you, I need a doctor!"

The man gulped. "Uh... yes of course." He stuttered, "You!" He said, returning to his snarky tone as he pointed at Caitlin. "You're a doctor, right? Get over here and help her out!"

He then turned back to me.

"You're the schutta..." I said with venom, "Correct me I'm wrong, but something tells me you haven't been very lucky in love!"

"You offering, Twi'lek?"

"Get real!"

"In that case, get moving!"

I frowned. "How the hell did someone like you become Coruscant security? Han wouldn't put up with you that's for sure."

"Well Solo isn't here anymore, so I don't need to worry about him now do I?" He said smugly, "Now hurry up!"

I slowly walked out from behind the bar. I couldn't believe this was happening, but now wasn't the time or place to make a scene. As I passed him I stopped, looked at the man, then spat in his face. I gave him a smirk, before walking out with the others.

[hk47fan]

Trika

We all were walking out, quite grudgingly, but suddenly Miss Haltzilakas stopped, looking at the officer. "Before we go any further, I would like to know what the charges are. As a citizen, we have the right to know why we're being arrested."

"We don't know, lady, we just got the orders from the Supreme Admiral...don't get all high and mighty, you aren't anything anymore." one officer said.

Caitlin had now rushed to Leia's side. "You cannot arrest us like this! This woman is about to have a baby, she needs to be rushed to a Medical Bay, not a jail cell...and I need to go with her!"

"You all aren't weaseling your way out of this," another officer remarked. "You all are going to a jail cell!"

"Okay if you don't shut the hell up I am going to rip you to shr-" I began, shoving him, but another officer grabbed me.

"This is insane! Let us go!" Dusk yelled.

"Our bodies will not stand for this for long!" Kossk snapped. "You are arresting the bodies of law-abiding citizens!"

"Everyone stay calm," Miss H said, motioning for the rest of us to just keep ourselves under control. "But I think we deserve to know exactly what is going on here."

[Rain]

Han

I made my way to Leia's side. I ignored the guards, and smiled at her. "It's mine isn't it." I asked.

She hesitantly nodded. "Actually, they are yours." She held up two fingers, "Twins..."

My smile grew wider. I was going to be a father! Something I never thought I'd here, but the thought have me a warm feeling inside, one I had never experienced before. "Twins, eh? Well ain't that something! Leia... why didn't you tell me?"

"I... I guess I was afraid of how you would react."

"Well, I'm ecstatic!" I smiled again, before leaning in and passionately kissing her.

"Alright, come on Solo, move it!" I heard one of the guards snap, the same one that called Leia a schutta.

"Don't push it, pal!" I said through gritted teeth, before moving on, with Leia by my side, and Caitlin by hers.

Winter

"Oh no..." I said as I looked at the live recordings from the security cameras. I had to help them out. Then I had a brainwave. I glanced around to make sure no-one was looking, then I activated my comlink. It was a good thing I kept Kurt's frequency.

I hesitated before I called him. I knew that what I would do would inevitably end in loss of life. But it was nescessary. And even though it wasn't much of a consolation, the team Sora sent were the crooked ones. Most of the good Security members had left after Han was fired. No doubt Hunter Solon had helped hire these goons.

I keyed in Kurt's frequency and spoke. "Kurt, it's me, Winter. So much for that goodbye, eh? Listen, I know you have things to do and places to be, but I need a favour..."

[Revan Jast]

Kurt's radio crackled to life suddenly, almost startling him.

"Kurt, it's me, Winter. So much for that goodbye, eh? Listen, I know you have things to do and places to be, but I need a favour..."

"Sure thing," he replied. "What is it?"

As he listened, he nodded slowly. When she was done speaking, he confirmed that he understood what she had told him. "I'm shutting off the comms now. You won't want to hear what's next."

---------------

Selas had his hands cuffed in an instant. He started forward, but someone poked him in the back. "Move your ass," the guard said, spitting on the ground.

Sighing, Selas moved a little bit faster. The sun was setting rapidly, spikes of orange light shooting through the gaps in the buildings. As the crowd moved down the street, the two guards in front moved directly into the light, raising their hands to shade their eyes. They both stopped, muttering about blindspots.

Selas suddenly realized that they had made their first, and last, mistake of the evening.

------------

Kurt lay on his stomach, his rifle loaded and scope sighted on the group below. The butt of the gun against his shoulder and his helmet on the ground next to him, he had a perfect line of sight to the targets. The sun was behind him, illuminating the group clearly.

The two men in the front moved out into the sunlight and slowed down, raising their hands to block the sun. Kurt looked through the scope and saw that they were speaking... and then they stopped.

"Goodbye, fuckface 1 and 2."

Teeth gritted in concentration, Kurt pulled the the trigger.

------------

Selas rapidly backed away from the guards a split second before the gunshot went off, obliterating the first guard's head. It wasn't half a second later that it sounded again, and the second man was down.

Concentrating, Selas used the Force to unlock his handcuffs, the metal rings releasing from his wrists and falling to the ground with a clang. "We've got to move," he said. "Who else is handcuffed?!"

Growling, Dawn broke right out of his and grabbed the nearest guard, raising him above his head with both arms. The cyborg didn't even listen to the man's screams, bringing him down and breaking his back on one bent knee. He tossed the body aside and looked at the others.

"Who wants some?" Dawn yelled. There was another gunshot as a fourth guard went down. "Hot damn! Save some for me!"

---------

Up top, Kurt chuckled and took aim again.

[hk47fan]

Trika

"Hell yeah!" I yelled, grabbing one of the dead guard's blaster rifle, and pointing it at several more. I fired, taking them down instantly.

"I'm not usually one to do this, but I think this time we have no choice." Lynn muttered, grabbing a rifle herself, and starting to fire. Dusk was also using her weapons on the guards.

"Kill the big butts!!!" Chok shouted in triumph as he poked a guard with his stick.

Kossk also ignited his lightsaber, cutting through a few.

"Hey, wait, everybody, hold on a minute!" Nack yelled, looking at us all in disbelief. "I thought we were going peacefully?!"

"I want to try to keep the peace as much as possible," Miss Haltzilakas stated, grabbing a rifle. "But the fact is, at this point we can't just stick around and let Sora imprison us wrongly...we have to do something. I think now we know there's no talking to him."

More guards prepared to fire, but before they could, another lightsaber flew right over our heads and cut through them. More shots were also being taken from above.

We all whirled around to see Barriss Offee and Declan Riley approaching.

"I was coming to ask the shunned people of Supreme Admiral Trok their opinions on all of this," Barriss said as she came forward. "I intended to take the Order and leave Coruscant, but he convinced me to remain neutral...however, now I am discouraged and see a fight going on. What is happening?"

"To put it simply: Sora's trying to arrest us," I replied, nearly cringing at even saying the words.

"Then perhaps the former Chief-of-State is right," Barriss said, looking to Declan. "For the safety of the Jedi, I must take the Order and leave Coruscant."

"Can we even stay here? Technically, we're criminals now," Dusk said.

"We better hurry with a decision because Leia is going to give birth soon, and I think I see more security officers on the way!" Caitlin exclaimed, still standing by Leia's side.

[Rain]

Han

Before I could say anything my comlink buzzed. "Han Solo, Head of-... uh, just Han Solo."

"Han, it's Winter!" A voice buzzed through, "You guys can't stay and fight, you need to move, now! There are more Security guards on the way, they will be there any second, so listen up. Get everyone and make your way to the east plaza, I'll meet you there. Then we can get the Falcon and the Killer back. I'm sorry Han, but it looks like you guys have ran out of options, you're going to have to leave the planet. I've spoken to Bria, and she agrees you should head to Bespin. Hurry Han!"

Before I could reply she cut off. I sighed and turned to the group.

"Alright listen up!" I shouted to get their attention, befoe explaining what I had just been told...

[Revan Jast]

Selas looked at Han. "It's come to this... a part of me wants to deny it. I've failed, though... I've failed us, I've failed the higher powers... I've failed my best friend. I guess there's no time to focus on failing though. Right now we need to succeed."

"Damn right," Kurt said as he rappelled down the side of the building and joined them. "I can keep them back from up top, if you need more help on your way there. Unless someone has got a map that shows some back roads or something..."

"Excellent idea, Kurt," Selas said. "I'm sure one of us has got a digital map on our data-pads. But don't you have something to attend to?"

Kurt scowled. "Right... I almost forgot..." Looking at the others, he took a deep breath and finally spoke. "I'm still on your side, but I'll be with Sora, working as a spy."

Murmurs greeted this.

"I don't like it anymore than you do, but this is a task that has been given to me by someone far greater than any of us, and I have to listen. Because of that task, I shouldn't be seen with you, so I have a better idea. I'm going to leave right now and get a hold of Sora, pretend I'm hunting you down. Maybe he'll give me the rights to lead a team of guards, and I can do a half-assed job of 'finding' you, if you get what I mean. That should keep some of the forces of your ass, and it'll plant down a few roots for me in Sora's government."

Selas raised an eyebrow. "That's a risky endeavor, but it might work."

"Fuck that. There's no might... it has to work. Are we all ok on that?"

[hk47fan]

Kossk

I watched as the bodies spoke...it was a sad today for all our souls. We had a fight with the Captain's body earlier, but now it had come to this. Our bodies must actually leave Coruscant, and take the Captain's ship.

But it is the only way.

"The Killer is my dad's ship...I mean, okay I know the guy isn't the greatest and we do have to leave, but should we really take it?" Nack asked, still looking worried.

"We can't all fit on Captain Solo's ship," Threepio replied. "I am afraid it is the only way for us to get out of here free!"

R2 beeped in agreement.

"When body and soul of Captain unfit to stand duty, it is up to his crew member's bodies to relieve him," I hissed, looking to everyone. "We must do this today and now."

"Kurt, I am okay with your idea, but Sora's likely only going to give you a portion of the security officers...alot are still going to be following us, on their own," Miss Haltzilakas commented.

"But it will take some of the pressure off of us," Ackbar pointed out.

Everyone else nodded.

"I need to go help the Order finish evacuating...for now, we will head to Bespin as well, if they will have us, and wait for Grandmaster Redgrave before we do anything else," Barriss said, looking to Declan. "Master Riley, if you agree, I recommend that you stay here, and give everyone a helping hand...escort them to their ships, and go to Bespin with them. We will meet again there."

Declan nodded. "I was thinking the same thing, Master Offee."

With that, Barriss took off for the Jedi Temple.

"Now, before we leave, we need to make sure everyone is accounted for," Miss H said, looking to the group.

I looked to everyone...we had the Selas body, with the pregnant Fi body at his side. The Ewok pilot body...the body of Han and Leia, who was about to bring another body into the world, as well as the bodies of Caitlin, Lynn, Nack, Trika, Dawn, Memah, Ackbar, the droids, Declan, Chewbacca, and Dusk. There was also the Kurt body, but he would be gone soon enough.

"Anyone else that would likely be with us is off on a mission," Caitlin remarked.

"Hey, wait just a minute...where the hell is my husband?!" Trika asked, her eyes widening.

"He is one of the people on a mission, but its a story that will have to wait until we're safely off this planet...believe me, he's nowhere near Coruscant." Lynn assured her.

"You better be right," Trika snapped.

"Our bodies can waste no more time," I interrupted, knowing that everything that needed to be said had been. "We must take our bodies and get to the ships!"

[Rain]

Han

We continued running toward the east plaza. Leia's contractions still hadn't started, but she was struggling, so Chewie was carrying her. Up ahead we caught a glimpse of another Coruscant Security member. Chewie gently let Leia down and raised his bowcaster.

"Hold it!" I shouted before the Wookiee could get his shot away, "Don't shoot. That's Winter!"

At that moment she turned her head, revealing that I was correct. "Come on!" She shouted, "I've set a bug in the security system. The cameras are offline, so CorSec is blind at the minute. But they will be back on shortly, so we need to hurry."

We ran closer to her and gathered round. "Alright, the ships are being held in the quarantine dock."

"Quarantine!?" Memah exclaimed.

Winter shrugged. "Sora seems obsessed at the minute. He's acting insane. Anyway, the main entrance is heavily guarded. No way could we get through there without drawing any more attention. But I know a secret passage. We need to go underground..."

[Revan Jast]

"Into the dark.... wonderful," Selas said, looking around them to spot out any wayward security forces who might call them out. "Like I haven't spent enough time there."

"Well, let's get a move on," Dawn said. "The sooner we get gone, the better."

"Let's hope Kurt's plan works," Selas said.

-----------

Static filled his ears as he ran, moving out of the range of the others. Halting, Kurt raised his arm and played around on his wristpad computer, switching the frequency to one that he could reach Sora with. A woman came on the line, so he assumed he'd managed to reach the main headquarters.

"I need to talk with Sora Trok," he said, ducking into a back alleyway. "It's urgent!"

The woman didn't ask questions, just switched him over right away. Either it was known who he was or Sora was taking calls from anyone.

"Listen Trok," Kurt started, not giving him time to speak. "I just heard about the warrant out for your crew. I decided to go over there to help out security, because lets face it, no simple group of guards could hold them down. Well, I was right. By the time I got over there, your guards were dead and the crew was nowhere to be seen."

Kurt paused for a minute, then continued. "I think I may be able to track them down myself... it's what I do for a living, after all... but I'll need assistance. They'll just as soon kill me too if I come alone."

Please be crazy enough to listen to a half assed lie, Kurt thought to himself.

[hk47fan]

Sora

Suddenly, Kurt Jervada came on the line...once I had seen it was him, I answered immediately, though I wondered what the hell he would want.

However, I soon found out...he was offering assistance, as my friends, my former friends, had decided to go rogue and stampeding across Coruscant.

They had to be stopped. They were taking this too far, and I had enough.

"I already have a large team of guards closing in on them," I told him over the comm. "However, I will give some of them to you...you can go and block them off from escaping, because I am sure they will find some way to."

Declan

I nodded. "We need to get a move on as soon as possible," I said.

"He's right," Miss Haltzilakas said with a nod. "Lets go."

However, I could see guards approaching...there was a large amount of them on the way, I could tell. My eyes darted to the others.

"We can't let them see Winter, Sora will know she's helping us," Trika said.

I sighed...these guards would be hard enough to take down in a group. Alone, it would be nearly impossible for any man...but if the man was smart enough, he'd be able to at least hold them off while the rest get to safety.

I knew what I had to do...I had felt the Force calling to me, vaguely, for awhile now...I hated to leave like this, when I had a beloved wife, but perhaps...perhaps my life was not intended to go on any longer.

"I'll stay here," I told everyone else.

[Rain]

Winter

"Alright." I nodded towards Declan. I could tell his mind was made up, and none of us could change his decision. To try to would only waste time, and I needed to get all of these people off Coruscant now! "Good luck, and thank you."

I made my way to an alley and motioned to the others. "Over here!" I shouted as I opened up a grate.

"The sewers?" Memah asked.

"No, it's a passasge that runs alongside the sewers. It's there for maintenance purposes, but it leaded right to teh quarantine dock. Now, everyone, we need to hurry!"