Survival, Dark Times 3

[RobbyL9]

"Yeah I know what you mean. Things are never what they seem in this biz, so there may come a few times when we have to utilize a few tricks of the trade to survive." Blades said with a nod "Let's just keep moving and if we come to a situation that requires special treatment, I'll let you know. As a matter of fact..." Blades pointed up at the catwalk.

The catwalk ran all the way around and bridged over the room. It looked like there was another door up at the top, likely leading to the catwalk in the next room. "If someone were to get up to that catwalk and take the high ground, this place could be better navigated and we could get the drop on the guys in the next room."

Blades dropped to a squat and put his hands palm up forming them into a solid base. "Get on my shoulders, man."

[Revan Jast]

Kurt stared at him, looked up at the catwalk, looked back at Blades. Shrugging, he stepped onto the base Blades provided and quickly moved his other foot to his shoulder, grabbing for the bottom of the catwalk as he did so. Damn, came up too short.

Blades stood as quick as he could, nearly making Kurt lose his balance. He reached for the catwalk again and grabbed it, curling his fingers around the iron wrought bars and pulling himself up and over the edge. Ok, that was tougher than just using a grapple gun.

"Alright," he said after he caught his breath, "what's your plan?"

[RobbyL9]

Blades pulled out his pistols and pointed to the upper door. "You're gonna go through this door right here and use the advantage." he said, twirling his pimped FW-G5s around "On the off chance there's another guy waiting up there, you're gonna wait for the aggro to switch to me." At this comment, Blades nodded and smirked "Just push the door open when you hear things start to explode in that room."

Without waiting for Kurt to acknowledge, Blades opened up the door and proceeded into the hall. The room he was leaving and the adjacent room were at the end of the hall, where an overflowed shelf of droid parts spilled out onto the floor. Various metal crates were also stacked on top of each other, making the hallway seem smaller than it really was but providing decent cover.

Blades opened the door a crack and peeked in. Pursuant with the droid parts outside, this was a warehouse area. There were several large glows of light coming from somewhere and the crackling of sparks filled the air. He noticed many Rodians and humans working on different stages of stripping down droids in the parts of the room he could see. They all seemed pretty distracted, so he tried to push the door in a little further and sneak in to surprise them. But the door's hinges squeaked loudly.

"Is that you, Dak? Move your ass and get in here, we got droids to salvage and repair." a rough, alien voice said.

Silently cursing the squeaky door, he pushed it open a little more before backing up and charging it. Kicking it open, Blades shot both his pistols wildly and slid behind a small stack of the metal crates. He heard many voices in Rodese shouting to "Get the guns!" and "Kill him!" Blades shot wildly and was lucky enough to hear one high-pitched scream pierce the air, but it just sounded like he nicked someone in the arm or something.

Gathering up his nerve, Blades vaulted over the crates and ran across the room to another stack of crates to get a better view of them. As he ran, the engineers started shooting and hit him in the back of his calf just as he vaulted over the crates, tripping him up and making him fall awkwardly into a pile of scrap. "Ah g- Sonofa!" Blades growled before straightening himself out and shooting rapidly at the pirates. Reaching into his vest, he pulled out one of his grenades and armed it.

[Revan Jast]

Kurt put his back against the wall by the door and waited. He heard Blades burst into the room, and gunfire erupted. He decided to open the door just a crack and look in.

Blades was running for cover when a stray laser hit him in the back of the leg. He vaulted over the crates in front of him, the lasers striking the boxes to no avail. Kurt saw him reach into his vest and he knew what he was going to do.

The small, spherical object came flying towards the group of enemies in what seemed like slow motion. Kurt narrowed his eyes, unholstering his pistol as he watched the explosive. It never touched the ground.

Moving quickly, Kurt aimed without thinking and fired, the bullet striking the grenade dead center. It exploded right in the midst of the first cluster of guards, tearing them to shreds. He didn't stick around to watch though. He was on the move. He ran for the other side of the catwalk, most of their attention on the newcomer. He had a feeling that'd be a horrible mistake on their part. He tossed a flashbang over his shoulder, towards the ground, and dived, covering his eyes.

SNAP!

[RobbyL9]

Blades raised his gun over the side and blind-fired for a few seconds before getting up all the way. He had been expecting the explosion, but not the flashbang and caught it out of the corner of his eye. He groaned and shielded his eyes, feeling the concussion vibrate inside his guts "Ugh, damn!" he yelled, straightening out and aiming.

Even though most of them had been blinded as well, the pirates continued to fire. Some of the shots were off by a mile, but since most just pointed in the direction they had been facing before it was still a danger. Blades fired rapidly into the crowd and hit three of the men in the chest, killing them but sustaining several more stinging shots to his vest.

He ducked back behind the crates to let his rifle cool down. The effects of the bang would likely wear off when he re-emerged. "Count stands at six." he whispered to himself "Creepy, homicidal, bearded guy do you see anything?"

[Revan Jast]

Kurt peeked around the corner and picked another off with one well placed bullet. He ran to the next set of crates and ducked behind them. He needed something that'd do a lot of damage and scare em...

He looked around and peeked behind him, spotting a large pile of crates on a platform a few dozen feet away. Hmmm... if he could use his momentum...

He fired off a few warning shots and stood, sprinting for the platform. When he reached the edge of the catwalk, he leaped, landing on both feet and crashing into the crates. The wood creaked, the platform swaying slowly.... slowly...

He pushed one of the crates forward, providing the extra forward weight that was needed. With a crack, the platform toppled over and the crates rained down on the helpless soldiers below.

Except he was going with them.

Oh shi-

[RobbyL9]

While he was in the middle of preparing to get to his feet and fire again, Blades heard a large cracking sound amidst the sound of the random gunfire. It got louder and louder until one final resounding crack pierced the air. Poking his masked head over the crates, Blades noticed the platform above the room directly across from him was right about to hit the floor where the pirates were standing.

There was one problem, Kurt was still on top of it and didn't look like he was going to get down before it crushed the enemies. And that's exactly what happened. With a loud cry of "Holy shit!" the remaining engineers were crushed by the stack of crates. Kurt came flying down on top of the crates. Blades would have finished watching the whole show if not for the crate that hit the floor and bounced toward his face.

Blades ducked face down to avoid getting hit and covered the back of his head. The crate shattered against the wall and opened, raining pieces of mangled droids all over him. Thankfully, it was mostly wires and they weren't live.

After the dust settled and it seemed the room went back to being still, Blades got up slowly with his rifle pointed out. No activity. Must have got them all. he thought to himself. He looked to the center of the room with all the rubble and broken boxes and yelled "Heyo! Kurt! You alive in that pile of crap?", vaulting over to it and looking down his sights at it. He suddenly felt the spot where he had been shot on the leg and winced silently.

[hk47fan]

Sora

"A family?" I repeated in shock at the very idea that Solon had just posed to me. "Mr. Solon, have you forgotten that I am recently widowed? That my wife was brutally murdered a short time ago? I can't just move on from that."

Solon blinked in confusion. "So? Who the hell cares about her?"

I scowled. "Watch your tongue," I snapped, getting on the defensive when it came to Padme, an innocent woman who should be alive today. "Not to mention, if you want to impress the public, re-marrying right after the death of your wife is not a very good idea."

Solon shrugged. "I don't mean right now, but just think about it. Marry some nice, notable woman, and start a family. You will look like a good, family man to the public, and they'll continue to love you. It's a win-win," he said. "Now I have to go try to say something about this mess."

Solon walked past me, and I shook my head as he went. Solon truly didn't seem to have a heart, at times, but I couldn't doubt any of my decisions. I just couldn't, or else we'd veer off the path that would lead to justice and peace.

Did he have a point, though? Did I need a family? It sounded almost insane, but at the same time, it did sound like a good idea in theory.

Am I really that crazy? Could I just go off and get some trophy family for the public?

I shoved that thought aside for now. I was still feeling very conflicted about all of this. The death of that prisoner, the slight doubt about her guilt that was creeping into my mind. Was any of this right? Was any of it wrong?

Sighing, I left HQ, and returned to my office at the Rotunda, trying my best to avoid and ignore everyone and anyone on the way there.

I walked in, and sat down at my desk. Things had to get under control soon. This insanity couldn't continue.

[Revan Jast]

"You're right about that," Mesiros said, stepping around Sora's desk from seemingly nowhere. He swept his robes under him and took a seat in an almost oversized, comfortable leather chair across from Sora. Leaning back and resting one leg atop the other, the dark visage he so carelessly promoted seemed to sink with him into the well cushioned furniture. He looked almost comical, sitting there.

"Solon is right, too," he continued. "You need to promote a good, public image. A lonesome man is a troubled man. You're troubled, no doubt, my friend, but we... you can't let them see that."

Mesiros leaned forward, making him appear even smaller in the chair. "You don't even need to love the woman. Just marry her, buy her nice things, treat her well, give her a couple kids. It'll all be a wash."

[hk47fan]

Sora

Out of nowhere, Mesiros appeared. I almost jumped up from my chair in shock, but I was in such a somber mood right now that didn't permit for much surprise. Mesiros, as of late, had actually been a helpful advisor on a rare occasion. His appearances were random, but he had been a great help to me, in his own way.

"Hello, Mesiros," I said, before raising an eyebrow at his last statement. "Mesiros, do you know how heartless that sounds? Convince some woman to marry me and try to satisfy her, just so I can look good to the public? I want the people to believe in me, but that sounds like it crosses the line. It would be disrespectful to that woman. It would be disrespectful to Padme. It would almost be disrespectful to the people themselves."

[Revan Jast]

The agent waved a hand. "Sora, your wife was a good woman. A great woman, even. But she's gone now, and clinging to her will only bring you pain. A new woman, she can be there for you. Maybe you would even truly love her. You could hold her, see her, smell her, taste her. And you're the damn hero of the Republic. The man who stood in the face of evil, those being Mona and his closest friends who betrayed him, and stayed strong. There's a woman out there who would love you for who you are without a problem."

Mesiros leaned back again and motioned with his hands. "And you could have a true, honest-to-the-Gods family, with children you can raise properly and care for, if that's your thing. Sora, this could be the start of a new, personal life for you. Sure, there's the public image, but the person who needs a change, more so than the people, is you. Sora, don't think about love as being disrespectful or heartless right now. You need this."

[hk47fan]

Sora

I mulled over what Mesiros was saying. The idea still made me hesitant, but Mesiros did have a way of making it sound rather decent. It was never out of the question for widowers or widows to find love again, and perhaps I did need it. Perhaps it would help put everything behind me, and make me look even better to the public.

However, all of it still made me uncertain. It still didn't sound right. And how could I even find a woman to love, so soon? One that would love me?

"You may have a point," I told him. "But I feel like I cannot move on that quickly. I just lost Padme, who I was married to for years. However, on the same token, perhaps there is no time to waste. Perhaps you and Solon are more right than I am. Not to mention, Mesiros, how would I find someone? As Supreme Admiral of the NR, I don't have the time to go on some search for a wife."

[Revan Jast]

Mesiros shrugged. "Look at the flip side of that coin: you're the Supreme Admiral and you can surely take a break long enough to go on some dates. Or perhaps you could hold an event of sorts. Have a party or competition and women across the planet, even the Galaxy could come and vie for your heart. I can see it now: 'New Republic's Grand Ball'. And there you are in full attire, looking grand with some medals and an award winning smile."

He rested his chin in his hand, no longer looking at Sora, but appearing to be in a trance. "Then this beautiful brunette walks through the door, dressed in a casual yet sexy evening gown. Her hair is all done up, nice and pretty. She has an enticing gleam in her eyes, but outwardly she's very shy. Catching your eye, you walk over to her and engage in casual but interesting chit-chat. And history is made."

[hk47fan]

Sora

"What an interesting idea," I remarked, not sure about that actually working. It almost sounded too out there. Nonetheless, the idea of a family was one to entertain, but I still felt very unsure. It made me uneasy, but maybe Mesiros was right.

Maybe I just need to put the past behind me. As much as I hate to admit it, Padme is my past.

"If I had a new family," I remarked, emphasizing the word 'if', while voicing my thoughts outloud. I usually did not do that about subjects like this, but Mesiros could hear my thoughts inside my mind anyway, if he wished. "It may not be like it was, but I could right the wrongs. Rectify mistakes I made before. Start..."

I stopped, a part of me telling me that I didn't want to say what I was about to state. However, I felt like I must.

"Start anew," I finished.

[Revan Jast]

Mesiros nodded. His tone became a grave one, his voice now somber. No theatrics here.

"Yes, Sora. Start over, start fresh. Like it or not, this is your life now, and these are your people. Sometimes life is like a revolving door: what you see one second will not be there the next. Always spinning, always changing. I know a little something about that myself."

The agent stood and brushed his robes with his hands. "It's a scary prospect, I know. But I honestly believe that's what's best for all of us... and especially for you."