Alexander
After not stopping Ahsoka's interrogation when she demanded it, Yela had officially stopped talking to him and while she was forced to break last night's fight off due to hunger issues her passive sort of resistance didn't seem to be affected. Alex and Yela sat at the breakfast table in silence.
"We transferred Lux to a federal prison," the king tried. Yela ignored him and continued to eat her stake. Yes, Yela was eating a rather raw piece of steak for breakfast. Partly due to her change in overall diet and then also because she was in a bad mood and her carnivorous side was more dominant than usual.
"The Hutt's also agreed to the new proposal. They may not like it but I think they understand that we can't simply universally legalize slavery without working out a set of laws that keep things in order."
Still, Yela said nothing and Alex noticed how sharp and long her Canine teeth were. Usually, it wasn't that obvious. Sure you could see that her teeth were sharper than those of humans but now that she was pissed..... "Can you please talk to me?"
Yela put aside her knife, "Alex, have you ever been interrogated like is being now Ahsoka?"
He shook his head.
"Well, I have. Multiple times actually throughout my childhood. I can tell you that it's not very pleasant," she reminded him.
Alex shrugged, "I didn't ask her to break in. You do realize that she has top-level intelligence on Republic activities seeing as she left the Republic less than two months ago."
Yela snorted. "Sure."
Yela turned back to her breakfast.
Maxwell
Maxwell Bay briskly walked toward the palace from where his Corellian Corvette was parked. Although Shenna didn't have her pilot's license yet he had allowed her do the flying. Shenna hadn't complained that much and had jumped behind the controls.
For once, he wasn't in his uniform. He was wearing a light combat outfit and combat boots.
He was ready for a fight if it came down to it and while he wasn't eager to take lives he would if necessary.
The guards didn't try to stop him as he entered the palace. Under normal circumstances, he would have reported such a gap in the security but today.....well today the situation was different. Maxwell headed straight towards the holding cells. Only when he reached the first checkpoint did someone tries to stop the former Jedi Battlemaster.
Two enlisted soldiers blocked Maxwell's path, "Forgive me, my lord. We don't have you on our list. Do you have any paperwork?" Max felt the familiar calmness taking hold of him that always took over before a battle.
"You do realize who I am?" he asked.
"I'm sorry. We-" the guards crashed into either side of the wall, thrown aside by an invisible force. Before they had crumpled to the floor he was already moving again, making his way to the prison wing. The four men posted on the checkpoints further down the hall had noticed the attack and jumped over their barricade to aid their comrades armed with shock staffs, the tips of which were now crackling with electricity.
Max didn't bother pulling his lightsabers out. When the first guard came in range and jabbed at him, hoping to incapacitate him out with a single burst of electricity he easily sidestepped and rammed his elbow into the man's face, sending him down to the floor. The second guard made an overhead diagonal blow under which Max ducked. He moved in and rammed his knee into the man's in the stomach and sent him stumbling into the path of the third soldier. Both went the floor.
The last guard jumped over his fallen comrades and engaged Max who danced through the first two blows and then countered with two quick punches to the gut followed by a swing to the man's temple.
As he fell Max grabbed the energy staff and engaged the remaining two men who were scrambling back to their feet. Two decisive jabs later they were out of action.
For a moment he asked himself if breaking Ahsoka out would really be that easy but then those guards were there to stop a restrained and greatly weekend teenage girl from fleeing, not to stop him from getting in.
Finally, Maxwell reached the room Ahsoka was being kept in and was slightly annoyed when he realized that someone inside had sealed the door. That meant that they had also raised the alarm. For a moment he considered trying to find the shatter point but chose against it. He didn't have much practice in that force discipline and it took much to long.
Instead, he grabbed his lightsabers and turned on his weapons. Then he buried both blades in the Titanium door. It didn't take long to cut a good-sized chunk out of the door. Once the cut-out slap of metal crashed through the door he stepped into the hole and his eyes locked on the Togruta that was being suspended in a field of blue light.
Just in time, he realized that they weren't alone. Four men who had likely been responsible for questioning Ahsoka opened fire with blasters.
Maxwell didn't try to deflect all of the blaster bolts. He jumped forward and rolled. When he came back up to his feet he threw one of his weapons at the man furthest away and cut him in half.
Maxwell didn't pause and closed on the closest interrogator who fired his blaster. He deflected a blaster bolt back to its owner and hit him in the chest. He bounded past him and, slashed his weapon cutting through the next man's legs before finishing him off with a quick stab through the chest.
Max rounded on the last man who seemed to realize that he stood no chance and turned around fleeing through the hole in the door. Maxwell stretched his hand out to the second lightsaber hilt and let the weapon fly back to his hand.
"Max?" Ahsoka asked faintly, sounding confused. Apparently, the skirmish around her had finally woken her up.
"I'm getting you out of here." He strolled towards her and slashed his lightsaber through the stasis field emitter. The blue energy that kept him old friend imprisoned died in a shower of sparks.
Ahsoka
Ahsoka hadn't noticed at first that something had changed. She had been hovering between the void and consciousness for a while as a cocktail of drugs ravaged her body. Apparently, she had been injected with a mixture of amphetamines and sedative to screw with her body, weaken her and cause her a lot of pain in general. That and being kept awake by a mixture of injected adrenaline and shock therapy had worn her down so much that she hadn't noticed that her tormentors had stopped doing what they were there to do.
Only when two glowing blue blades cut their way through the door did Ahsoka realize that something that she should be aware of was going on. She had tried to clear her mind but before the intruder had finished cutting away through the door darkness had engulfed her again.
She opened her eyes again just in time to see one of her tormentors fleeing through an oval hole in the door. The three others lay around her motionless, probably dead.
Her eyes fell on the young man armed with two glowing lightsabers.
"Maxwell?" Ahsoka asked confused.
"I'm getting you out of here."
The former Jedi walked towards her and destroyed the-the stasis field emitter with his lightsaber. The blue energy that kept her imprisoned died out and Ahsoka felt herself going waitress before she was caught.
"Can you walk." He asked calmly. She tried to get to her feet but couldn't even move her legs. "I'll guess that's a no. I'll have to carry you."
Ahsoka heard the sound of armored boots coming from the hole in the door. "It's time to leave." Max threw her over his shoulder and stabbed one of his weapons into the floor and turned in a circle. There was an ear-splitting crack and she felt weightless again before darkness engulfed her.
When Ahsoka woke up again she tasted the familiar flavor chemical flavor of synthetic oxygen and felt a breathing apparatus strapped to her face. She was lying in the bunk of a small medbay. Ahsoka recalled what had happened last. It appeared that Max had attempted to save her and judging by her surroundings the attempt had succeeded.
Something hard brushed her hand as she forced herself to sit up and was pleasantly surprised to find her lightsaber and Shoto lying next to her. She attached the weapons to her belt and pulled the mask off. "You are in no condition to sit up. Kindly return to a resting position." A metallic voice demanded.
Ahsoka glanced at the medical droid.
"I have to!" She insisted and pushed the droid away when it tried to keep it's patient in line. It seemed that the sleep and oxygen had served her well because she was able to stumble to the door although she did need to lean against the wall for support.
When Ahsoka left the med bay she quickly realized that she was in type CR90 corvette and a glance out of a window showed Alderaan far below her.
She dragged herself through the ship and finally after what felt like walking miles reached the bridge. When Ahsoka opened the door she saw Maxwell and a young Twi'lek girl sitting behind the controls.
"The Pride is hailing us. She is demanding that we power down our engines." The girl announced.
"Ignore them Shenna. I do not intend to surrender."
"What's going on?" Ahsoka asked. "You're not supposed to be awake-" He started but then answered her question. "We are fleeing from Alderaan's gravity well. Someone isn't happy about me breaking you out. Shenna, divert all auxiliary power to the engines."
"Can I help?" Ahsoka asked.
"Not really."
"The Pride is opening a channel to us," Shenna announced.
"Put them through and prepare the counter-response."
Shenna pressed a few buttons and the hollo projector on the middle console turned on.
The holographic image of a young, dark-skinned woman appeared. It was Nina Foster. "Sir. Power down please and let us come on board. I'm sure we can work something out."
"You know I can't do that Foster. Don't take this personal," Nina looked confused and Max pressed a few buttons on the communicator.
"Take what personal? " she asked.
"This." Suddenly the image flickered and died.
"Did it work?" Shenna asked.
"Did what work?" Ahsoka cut in.
"I just sent my command codes over the holo date stream and shut down the Pride's main reactor core. She's dead in space for the next twenty minutes. I think we're home free. The Grace and her combat group are nowhere close enough to cut us off."
Shenna sighed in relief. A few minutes later they were far enough from the planet to safely jump to hyperspace.
"So where are we going?" Shenna asked.
Max glanced at Ahsoka who shrugged. She didn't have any ideas herself.
"I've always wanted to visit the ruins of the ancient Sith fortress on Oralta. Until now I never had the time. Does anyone have any objections?"
No one said anything. "Course plotted. Standing by hyperdrive," Shenna finally announced.
"Make it so." Shenna activated the hyperdrive and the ship accelerated into hyperspace.
"Get back in bed," Maxwell ordered, turning his attention to the Togruta.
Alexander
Alexander stared at the holo-projection. Maxwell had just jumped out of the system.
"I didn't see that one coming," Yela announced.
"Neither did I," Alexander admitted.
Maxwell's incursion had come as a total surprise. By the time the King had been informed that Maxwell was even in the city, his brother had already broken through the first two checkpoints.
In accordance with the Jedi assault doctrine, Maxwell had refrained from using deadly force seeing as he was being attacked with close-quarter, not necessary lethal weapons. The guards hadn't been a match for him. In the holding room itself, the guards had been armed with deadly weapons which seemed to have forced his brother to use lethal force himself.
At this time the alarm had already been raised and Maxwell had freed Ahsoka. Delta team and nearly a platoon of soldiers had already been mobilized and were on their way hoping to block the escape route. By the time they had closed on the room his brother had already cut through the floor and had disappeared in the maze of hallways. The next place he had appeared was at the small arms locker where he had secured Ahsoka's lightsabers. On his way out a small group of soldiers had found and engaged the King's little brother. According to the one survivor of the encounter, Ahsoka had not been mobile. At this point, Alexander had called in reinforcements.
Maxwell had disappeared again. Then while everyone was searching the castle he had walked out of the front door, practically unopposed where he got picked up by a four hundred fifty foot long corvette. On his way out of the system, he had also disabled the Pride which shouldn't have been possible.
"Boss, call Foster. As of this moment, she is in command of the fleet and tell General Tanisha Lay she is in command of the armed forces in general. I need to go to Ice-wind Keep and see if I can find out what is actually going on."
Yela raised an eyebrow. "Your staying calm?"
"For now," Alexander decided. While Alexander's mood was at an all-time low right now his brother usually didn't do things like this without giving the matter careful consideration and Alex was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. Sure, Maxwell would be announced enemy of the state but perhaps the reason behind it was something acceptable.
Ahsoka
Shenna, Max, and Ahsoka were sitting around a small table eating dinner. Maxwell had escorted Ahsoka straight back to the med-bay after jumping to hyperspace and had then sedated her which was probably for the best. The sedative had worn off after an hour and then she had simply slept for another five hours. By the time she woke up the drugs were out of her system and she already felt strong enough to walk more or less as long as someone steadied her.
"So, are we a crew now?" Ahsoka asked. If she was honest she hoped they were. For one the idea of hanging out with Maxwell had a great appeal for her in general. For another, she would take a while to fully recover from being tortured and didn't really have anywhere else to go.
"It appears so. Shenna?" The young Twi'lek looked up. "Yes?"
"If you want to I can have you sent back to Alderaan. You will be provided for together with your sister."
Shenna crossed her arms. "Are you nuts? This is the most exciting thing I've ever done."
Ahsoka met Maxwell's gaze. "So what will we do? Play freighter pilots? Civilian Transporter?"
Max shrugged. "We'll be fine. I transferred a significant number of credits to a number of bank accounts throughout the Republic."
"How much?" Shenna asked.
"Enough," Maxwell replied shortly.
The three ate in silence until Shenna announced that she would turn in early, leaving the two former Jedi alone. "We could try to save Lux. I know you think he's useless but he does have his heart in the right place." Ahsoka suggested.
Maxwell shook his head. "My brother will have moved Lux to a high-security prison by now. There is no way that we are freeing him."
After a few seconds, he added. "Why do I get the feeling that you know exactly what you want to do?" Maxwell suddenly asked.
Ahsoka rolled her aching shoulders. "It's more like an idea. I thought that perhaps it's time to be Jedi again."
Ahsoka could tell that he didn't like her idea one bit. She knew exactly why. Ever since she had met Max he had been a mystery to her. For most people, it was impossible to read him. His former master Shaak Ti had once told her that even she had usually had problems reading him and she had practically raised him.
However, she might be the one exception to that rule. She understood him now. For his entire life, he had been serving in one form or another. As a Jedi, Fleet Admiral or lord of Admirals he had always been duty-driven. This was truly the first time in which he answered to no one.
"I'm not saying that we should return to the Order or anything. I don't want to go back to a Jedi Order that was ready to toss me aside so quickly and I'm not asking you to serve politicians that were so ready to sell you and your crew out. I'm saying that we could be Jedi as they are meant to be. Knights of a Republic that belongs to a people. We stay out of the war, out of all the great battles and leave the sacrifices to others. We can start to fight for the small people."
Max stayed silent for a long time.
Maxwell
Max had to admit that he liked her idea and he knew that she knew that he did.
"Okay," Ahsoka smiled weekly and Max and scolded himself for letting her stay up for this long. Ahsoka was supposed to be resting.
"Ahsoka, go get some sleep." He ordered her.
The Togruta nodded slowly. "I will." Then she got up and started to walk past him before stopping. "Thanks. You know for getting me out of there."
"Any time, Ahsoka. Anytime."He replied.
Ahsoka caught Maxwell off guard by embracing him for a second and kissing him on the cheek before leaving the small mess hall.
Winter Wolf & Lengendary95 over and out.