EPILOGUE - Escape!

[tomcat]

The terrible sounds filled the compound as the house broke completely from its foundations and slid over the cliff. To Britton, Brim and Kara, who were closest, it was absolutely horrific. The sounds of those trapped inside, screaming, and then it was gone leaving only the sound of the Aegis. The ship flared and a torrent of wind billowed out around it, then it too began to silence as Caden reduced the power on the engines. The entry ramp on the starboard side began to descend and the form of Sam was seen followed moments later by Caden.

At the gates to Ranie's home, the Shade unplugged Hacks computer console and tucked it under his arm. He continued to walk away from the area, but as he did, he punched a connection frequency into his arm commlink. The darksider used the simple communicator to mask his voice, "OH MY! WE NEED HELP! SENATOR RANIE'S HOUSE IS UNDER ATTACK!"

"What? Who is this?"

"Just send help! Hurry!" The shade disconnected from the local policing authorities without another word. Even if they did not believe him, they still were mandated to investigate. After all, it was a government official who was reported in trouble. He smiled to himself, crossed the road, entered the treeline and disappeared.

Not far from Shade, Hacks also came out of the woods on the country road that ran along the coastline. He had not heard from Jasper nor the darksider that had come into the mansion. The clones had not been aware of the shadow's intention to attack. It actually screwed things up pretty bad, and Hacks could only assume Jasper was dead. He had heard the laser cannons fire and he had seen the ruined area outside of the house where he had fled... and Jas's comm channel was silent.

Hacks thought for a moment about trying to find his contacts on Bakura, but then thought better of it. Perhaps they would permanently silence him, too. No... he had tickets to travel. He had been paid. It was a big galaxy and he was going to use it to disappear.

[sdrotar]

Caden stared blankly for a moment at the carnage that surrounded them. His old friend, Kal, his co-pilot, Kex, and their passenger, Dan... all dead.

It was a masterful, horrific job. Whoever planned this assassination knew every detail from the inside, leaving the only probable suspects in Kal's death to be... then it hit him.

He realized that there was to be no pay, no medals, no anything. They were already here in secret, there were no clues left to follow, and the only thing that staying on this planet was going to do was get the rest of them killed.

It was time to go.

He shouted to Brim and Kara, "Can you walk?"
He saw another man emerge from the wreckage; one of Kal's security guards. Since the people who murdered Kal, Kex and Dan tried to murder this man, too - well, at this point, Caden figured that the enemy of his enemy was his friend, and they could use as many of those as they could get right now.

"You, too," he said to the man, waving. "We've gotta get the hell outta here."

[tomcat]

 

Gonna let some more posts to happen - if anyone else has stuff to offer - before I carry on.

[donimator]

Sam stood and processed what he saw...processed and scanned.
...what type and number of charges would have been needed to take the house down?
...how many people from the house manifest are not accounted for?
...what happened to the attackers?
...how far away were the local authorites and what would be their ETA?

Perhaps the last question was the one that concerned him most. Like Caden, he quickly surmised the predicament they were in and continued to scan the periphery while everyone else sorted themselves out. 

[BrianM]

He shouted to Brim and Kara, "Can you walk?"

Caden's question brought Brim out of his stunned silence. Realizing that Caden was right - they needed to leave right away - the Rodian ran to Dan's body and once again hoisted his friend onto his back. He jogged onto the ship and placed Dan on a bed in the infirmary. "We'll not leave you behind to take the blame for this, my friend."

[tomcat]

Looks like Kara's gonna be Caden's new co-pilot! I am liking the mix.

[watanabe]

Kara was shocked at about everything but managed to run to the ship while weaving to make sure she would be a hard target for anyone shooting at her.  On board she turned and looked out the ramp her blaster pistol pointed and ready for anyone unwelcome who might try to come on board.

"I'm good, I think we need to get the hell out of here, and quick."

[sdrotar]

"I'm good, I think we need to get the hell out of here, and quick."

"No kidding? Hope you didn't keep anything important at... uh, wherever it is you live."

Caden thumbed the thrusters and lifted the Aegis toward the night sky.

[tomcat]

The Loronar-explorer shook from the force of its powerful engines fighting against Bakura's gravity, but soon it began to lessen as the vessel punched out of the atmosphere and into low orbit. It quickly gained velocity and the planet behind it shrank as the distance grew.

Inside, Sam and Brim tended to the wounded Britton, while Caden and Kara sat in the cockpit waiting for the navcomputer to come up with the coordinates so that they could make the jump to lightspeed. Where they were going was not so much the concern, as just getting away from Bakura. Once they found somewhere quiet, they could decide on what to do.

The Aegis roared out of the Bakuran planetary system, getting far enough from the sun's gravity well, and then it disappeared as the hyperdrive took it to lightspeed. On the bridge, Caden and Kara relaxed a bit as the stars stretched before them and the eerie sight of hyperspace revealed itself. The ship's computer now had control of the flight and Caden reached out to tap Kara's arm. He thumbed over his shoulder to let her know they needed to head back to see how everyone was doing.

On the planet, Bakuran security forces looked on the ruins in shock. The senator's house was gone, smashed onto the rocky beach below the cliff and there were no survivors. One of the security officers stood in front of his superior, going over his notes. "Seems the senator, and his home, were attacked... by apparent guests. The B.O.S.S. has listing of a Loronar-explorer named the Aegis coming into Bakuran space a few days ago. Then our people get a call from an anonymous individual saying that the house was under attack by said ship. You can see the results. Planetary sensors recorded the flight of a vessel from the surface, into orbit, and out of our planetary system. We did not have enough info at the time to know to pursue."

"All right," answered the superior. "Send a communique to the Imperial Governor. Let him know that although we are treating this as a Bakuran matter, we would appreciate the resources to help locate the vessel... or at least be on the lookout for it."

Governor Thieraan listened to the Bakuran official speak, watching his face on the large viewscreen and smirked as the man said it was under Bakuran jurisdiction and thus theirs to deal with. This was the second high profile murder that had taken place in just a short period of time. The Bakurans were generally a quiet lot, but things were getting to big to go unheeded, and Thieraan did not want to hear from Coruscant, as to why he was doing nothing about it. The worst thing that could happen is that the Emperor would release Vader to come out to his sector - and he had no desire for the Sith Lord to be here. There had been awful stories of Darth Vader's purges and Wilhelm liked his position.

He let the man finish and then spoke, "This murder you speak of was of a man in high standing with the Imperial Senate, as well as Bakura... that makes it an Imperial matter. I will be there soon to get full details of what has been going on. Thieraan out." The screen went dark, and Wilhelm spoke to his own subordinate, "Send word to the Vigilance... she will be moving to the Bakuran star system and garrisoning the planet. I will personally be taking command of the situation."

The junior officer gave a nod and was on his way. Governor Thieraan brought up a holo-map of the Bakuran system. It was very backwater. One of his Venator-class destroyers, along with its two-wings of attack craft and 2,000 troopers, should do the trick.

[ZehnWaters]

"Thanks," Britton said to Sam and Brim, sounding a bit melancholy.  He hated losing and that's exactly what happened back on Bakura.  "Anyone know where we're headed?"

[watanabe]

Kara moved to the back of the ship, and began to look around for anything or anyone she could help with.

[BrianM]

Once Britton was stabilized, Brim called the group together to the room where Dan was quartered. His inert form lay on the bed, covered by a blanket. "Before we give our friend a proper burial, I wanted everyone to see this." He carefully pulled back the sheet, exposing the fatal wounds. "These were caused by a lightsaber. This thing we are involved in goes far deeper than we originally thought. Our 'yellow-eyed' enemies appear to be Dark Jedi, and this is trouble far beyond some simple drug dealings on Bakura."

[tomcat]

Hey all, this is totally a character dialogue scene... you are all on the Aegis, it is in hyperspace and you guys need to converse to figure out what the next move for you all will be. So please feel free to RP back and forth and I will chime in as I can until I am back on Saturday.

[ZehnWaters]

"Dark Jedi?  But why?  Who are they working for?" Britton asked as he sat back down after taking a look at the wound.  "If the Jedi came to the mansion himself he can't have been the one in charge, or he wouldn't have put himself into that much danger."

[sdrotar]

Caden stared incredulously. Still reeling from the death of his longtime friends Kal and Kex, he didn't know what to make of this news. He was small-time, really, even if he liked to think he was a bit more important than that, and he couldn't imagine what they could have stumbled upon that would have attracted lightsaber-wielding wackos.

Either way, they were in big trouble.

"Well, we're probably all wanted for assassinating a public official on Bakura," he finally said. "Or two. That's not good."

He walked over to a computer terminal and started thumbing some buttons. "We're gonna need a place to lay low. Real low; maybe for a while. Any ideas?"

He also knew he was going to need to do something with the Aegis. Their names and faces might not be on the grid yet - though, he figured, his very well might be - but the ship almost certainly was. He needed to find a chop shop; somewhere that could facilitate a reg-number and documentation change... quietly. Caden figured it was probably time to call in a couple favors...