Before - Legends Crash Course- Repost (Action/Adventure Non-JA OC) *completed* 6/15

No! Sloan! As worried as I am for him, I'm intrigued by Qui's conversation with Ishtari. More soon?

Shaindl

 

great post

 

THIS STORY IS SO GOOD!!

Sorry I just had to get that out The fight scene was amazing and I have to agree, it *was* a fair (if maddening!) way to end the fight, with no real winner. Everyone's a winner here, right guys? But the last post was awesome- love the tension, Crash's inner diaologue, and gotta feel for poor Shael!

Great work, and I have my fingers crossed for a happy ending!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you and I love writing fight scenes.

_______________________________




I just held on to my man until the next alarm jolted us a third time and started the fears flowing all over again. Roble hit the cutoff before more than the first note of the alarm could do more than jangle our nerves.

"Report."

"Patrol was hit, Boss. We scattered. I'm about a klick out and coming in hot," Cougar warned, no hint of his usual smile in his tone. "Make sure the door's open."

"You seen Chaser, Sloan or Dez?"

"Chaser's tight off my aft end, Boss. We met up at location eleven."

"I hear you, door's open."

Instead of decreasing, Shael's tension was winding higher and higher. The rule was that you shouldn't use the comm if you think someone might be monitoring. We didn't want anyone else figuring out what frequencies we used, though I have to admit the rule's a bit on the paranoid side. It's not like everyone on the planet knew we even had the helmet comms. It was Frank who figured out how to fit them in and between him and Tri'est the channels and switches had been hammered out so that anyone could get the hang of using them. In fact, not everyone had one yet, though the few Horsemen without were the ones that didn't ever go on patrol.

The only reason I could think of that Sloan hadn't reported in yet was that he was still being chased by those other riders. Or he was down. //Don't think like that!// Sloan was just still being chased. He'd lose them and we'd hear from him and he'd come back safe and sound.

I slipped away from Shael only once while we waited there for his brother to comm in. I grabbed Mason and explained what I wanted and he accepted it silently and left to get it done while I grabbed some food and went back to my man. As soon as Roble was done talking to Cougar and Chaser, Mason pulled them aside and took them over to Ishtari. The woman was a superb fighter, rode like a Sith out of hell, and on top of that was a surprisingly skilled artist. I'd charged Mason with making sure that everyone who came in from the patrol talked to Ishtari about what they'd seen. She would draw up any faces that could be remembered.

Maybe Shael or Trapper would recognize one of them as the men who had ambushed them those weeks ago. If they did, I wasn't sure what it would mean, but it would be one more piece of the puzzle that Mason and I could use to try and figure out just what was happening around us.

Shael didn't particularly want to eat, but since I was pushing food in his mouth, the easiest thing for him to do was chew and swallow. I didn't blame him. I didn't particularly want to eat either, but it gave me something to pass the time, other than watching the commboard and biting my nails to the quick.

Dez checked in, reporting that he'd managed to lose his tails, after a dogged and relentless chase in the heavy evening traffic as normal people, people who had no clue that a war was being waged around them, hurried home from a long day's work.

It was surprisingly easy not to be bitter about those people with normal jobs and normal lives. Sure, their world was more secure, safer than mine, especially now, but mine was alive. I soared with the eagles and chased the wind, I risked reputation and mainframe against glory and my family with every single slice I did. Even when my heart ached, my eyes stung with tears I wouldn't let fall, and my gut felt hollow with denied fear, I knew I was alive. As a once popular song went: ?If you're going to feel the pleasure, boy, you're bound to feel the sting. I'd rather have it broken, broken, than to never feel a thing.' I gladly exchanged a life of same old, same old for moments that let me feel such strong emotions.

With great gain comes the possibility of great loss, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Except, at that very moment, Sloan's life.

Darkness fell, Bait and Dez rocketed in and Marlo commed to let us know that he w

 

*sigh* I love this story... You effortlessly master action, be it fighting or high speed drama. I'm so very jealous! Wish I could make my action scenes as dramatic and realistic as you!

Don't suppose I can hire you to write my swoop scenes for Swings and Roundabouts?

"Cuddling up close, he tugged the light blanket up over us, and I spent another night in his arms, though this time I was comforting him."

Love that last line!

 

I don't envy whoever's got Sloan when Death and Shael catch up with them. Great post, Lilith!

Shaindl

 

Jemmiah -- They say write what you know, and growing up with three brothers in the back of beyond, then training in martial arts... what I know is violence, erm, I mean action.

Leona -- I guess that's why Crash is a swooper and you're not. It's all good. I, too, crave routine and predictability.

Shaindl -- Neither do I. And thank you.



Yeah, it's short, but you'll survive.

__________________________


Too early in the morning, Roble's hand on my shoulder woke me from an unhappy dream. As disgustingly early as it was, I almost thanked him for it. My sleep had been full of horrible images of loved ones lost, starting with my parents and continuing right on to Sloan. I rubbed tiredly at my eyes as he went on to wake Shael and then the two of us followed him to his office. Shael slumped into the first chair he came to and I slumped down right on top of him, my head on his shoulder.

Death's face was grim as he settled into his chair on the other side of his desk. "We just got a call," he said with no preamble. "It was the men who have Sloan."

That got our attention.

Shael, a sick fear lurking in the back of his beautiful eyes, swallowed, then nodded. "And?"

"And their request wasn't what I expected. They want us to skirmish against one of the other gangs, specifically the Wildcards."

"But we can't attack Bobby and his crew," I protested. "They haven't done anything to us!"

Death nodded, his head moving slowly, and I took a closer look at him. There were dark rings around his eyes, and the muscles of his face and shoulders all drooped just a little. It seemed that he had passed the night even more badly than me or Shael had. "I haven't a clue why they would want us to do this, but they say that's the price for Sloan's life."

"We can't do that," Shael stated flatly. "We can't ..." He took a deep breath that shuddered through his chest and I stroked at his cheek, trying to comfort. "We can't trade Sloan's life for those of Bobby and his family, or the Horsemen who might die as a result." His voice sounded dead, like the heart had been ripped out of him, and my own heart cried for him.

"Maybe we don't have to," Death said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"They're not swoopers, Sloan's message got us that much information about them. That means they won't know how we'll react. That's one advantage. Unless they figured out what the tracking pulse was or thought that he managed to tell us where they'd taken him, odds are long that they'd move him. That's the next advantage. We know where he is and they don't know that we know."

 

There's going to be a fight, there's going to be a fight...

What?

Awesome set up, Lilith. Can't wait to see what happens next. Incidentally, I'm coming to like Death more and more. Such a complex character - don't suppose you have any stories on him, do you?

Shaindl

 

As a matter of fact... no. Though he does feature rather prominently in the plot bunny that's trying to become Crash Course III.

 

Ready? Mostly... it's way more ready that Crash Course was when I first posted it.



On another note, however I've been contacted by the Wonderful ladies over at the newsletter:



From leia_naberrie

Hello Lilith Demodae

As you probably know, I am to interview you for the next edition of the Fanfiction Newsletter. So that I can prepare a concise and comprehensive questionnaire for the interview I would like you to do 3 things for me:
(snip)

2. Tell your friends and readers (at your own discretion, of course) about this interview so if they have any questions they would like to see posed in the interview, they should please PM them to me before the 22nd-Friday.

Now, I'm fairly sure she means Friday the 21st, and that's fairly short notice, but I wanted to give all my loyal readers here as much of a chance as I could to ask any questions they would like.



Oh, and I'll have an update for you folks sometime this evening.

 

Okay, here's the next bit, as promised.


___________________________



The plan we came up with was simple. It had to be, we had little time. They wanted us to make the strike within the next three hours. And they demanded that Shael go with the raiding party. He wasn't happy, kept insisting that we could put his jacket on someone else and they'd never know the difference. I doubted that. They'd managed to figure out somehow which of the three they had been chasing was really Sloan, so something told me they'd know if Shael wasn't really with the raiders.

The raiding group was large. It included the triplets, Trapper, Bulldog, War, Bait, Plague, Reeabok, Lyman, Frank and his cousin Al, Chaser, Nox and a dozen others, more than a quarter of our total members. And they were all armed to the teeth. The rescue party, on the other hand, was quite small, and I had to fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. Too many people wanted to take some shots at the low-down, honorless pigeons that had Sloan. Ishtari argued against overwhelming numbers by saying something about being able to go unnoticed, but very few of the men were buying that. Death finally had to step in and put his foot down.

Mason, Ishtari, Nash and myself would try to get Sloan back while the raiding party went blasting off to do absolutely nothing more than take a nice ride. Roble and Shael both were unhappy at my inclusion, but they couldn't reasonably counter any of my arguments. I knew more about security systems and how to get past them than any other Horseman alive, and the rescue party was probably going to need me desperately.

Sometime, in all the confusion and hurrying back and forth, Ishtari found a chance to pull me and Shael aside. Three of the faces she'd sketched with the help of the others matched up with Shael's memory of the small party that had hit him and Trapper. He rubbed absently at the healed-and-gone blaster burn he'd gotten from them while he looked at the pictures.

"That's them, but I couldn't tell you what it means."

Ishtari shot me a sharp, significant glance, but I held my tongue and shook my head at her. I'd promised not to tell and saying anything now would call for more explaining than any of us had time for.

When it was time to go, Shael held me in a crushing hug and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "If you don't come back, I don't know what I'll do," he whispered raggedly.

"You'll go on and help Death pull the gang through this," I told him, pulling back a little to look him in the eyes. "Nash, Ishtari, and Mason won't let anything happen to me and I won't let anything happen to Sloan. Go, and don't worry about us. If this is some sort of ambush you'll have enough to worry about keeping your own neck safe."

He kissed me swiftly, almost desperately. Behind him, Bulldog called out that they were ready and waiting. Shael opened his mouth, like he was going to say something more, ask me something, but Bulldog called again and I could see him change his mind. "I'll see you when I see you, Chenowyth."

"See ya when I see ya," I answered back, and then he strode away without looking back. The swoop engines started with a deafening roar and the whole grey and scarlet mob eased into the tunnel and blasted away into the clear morning air. I stared after them for a long while, not because I feared for him, Shael might not have had the easier part but he certainly had the safer part of that whole crazy idea, but because I hurt for him. He was worried for his brother and he was worried for me. I could see it twisting him up in every jerk of his head and every snapped order, and I hated it.

"He'll be fine, Crash." Ishtari's sympathetic hand rested lightly on my shoulder and gave me a heartening squeeze. "And we'll take care of you."

"I know that, and he knows that, but knowing and feeling just aren't the same," I murmured to her.

"That's life," she said philosophically, glancing back over her shoulder as Roble walked up to us, Nash an

 

love the descriptions of the hidey holes

 

Looking forward to the rescue. And I'm with Kitara - great job on the description.

Shaindl

 

Thanks, Ladies. Here's the next part.


__________________________



The bright sunlight was something of a surprise, but not just because of the darkness of the tunnels. We were sneaking about on a mission of life and death. It struck me as somehow wrong to be doing it in broad daylight. Such things belonged to the deep of night, to darkness and shadows. At least, they did according to the holodramas.

I shook away my melodramatic thoughts and climbed on behind Ishtari. Three engines cranked over and then we blasted away, jamming ourselves into the traffic flow with our usual lack of manners, Nash in the lead as we had planned. The place where we were headed was in Speed Demon territory and they were less likely to bother any group led by a non-Human.

Our biggest fears at that point were that we would either run into a skirmish in progress, or get caught by a patrol. Either one had the possibility of putting a swift end to our mission. Keeping that in mind, we moved with the flow of traffic, rather than around it or in spite of it. We had one close shave, but Nash?s sharp eyes spotted the patrol in time for us to dodge around a freighter until they had passed.

All in all, getting there proved to be the easiest part. The building, while not one of the towering skyscrapers around it, was still dauntingly large. And Sloan could be almost anywhere inside. We?d parked the swoops in a public lot a couple of blocks away, and taken the pedestrian walks the rest of the way, just in case they had some sort of look out.

?Can you even take a guess from the location pulse where he is in that thing?? Ishtari asked me as we lounged against a balcony railing, trying to look uninterested.

?Nope. If it were still working I could have gotten a good reading from here, but as it is ...? I shrugged.

Then we?ll just have to use a little logic.?

?Oh?? Nash rumbled, ?like what??

?Well, I really don?t think whoever?s behind this could afford to rent space on the top ten floors, for instance.?

Mason nodded. ?And they?d want to be unnoticed coming and going, so the next dozen floors or so are out, too.?

?So, what we are looking at,? Nash said softly and carefully, ?is the bottom seven floors, to be on the safe side, and any basement levels there may be. And then there are the men, how many??

?Bait and Marlo came up with ten. I?d assume that?s pretty much the lot. If they?re not swoopers, then they must be hired and I don?t know anyone who can afford more mercs than that,? Ishtari drawled, eyeing the building with distaste. ?Personally, from here I think it looks like a dump.?

Mason spoke up, ?They?d have someone watching Armageddon, to make sure the raiders left and no one else.?

?Maybe two,? Nash added. ?And another one or two in ?Card territory to actually watch the raid. That leaves six at best, eight at worst.?

?Could be worse,? I muttered, zipping up my jacket against the rising breeze. ?It could be much worse.?

?I suggest we split up, then,? Ishtari frowned. None of us much liked the idea, but we were getting very short on time. Soon enough it would become obvious that the raiding party wasn?t really going to do anything of the kind and then the imminent danger Sloan was in would quickly develop into mortal danger.

?In that case, I suggest that Crash goes with me and Nashraak goes with you,? Mason told Ishtari.

The tall redhead shared a look with him. That arrangement would put one Jedi in each group, the best situation we could hope for. She nodded. ?Sounds like our best bet. We?ll take the bottom, you start from the top and we work toward each other. First ones to find him get the kriff out of there and beep the others. Let?s do it.?

 

Nash is the only one that doesn't know what he is, right?

 

That's right. Or at least the only one in this little group.

 

I've always loved the way you write characters, Lilith. Especially Mason, lol! I find him strangely appealing!

Permission to archive at the Hell's Chance Cantina? Pretty Please? *makes begging eyes*

 

Sure, Jemmy. Give me a couple days and I can send you the most recent version (which has fewer typos than anything I've got posted so far...)


__________________________________________



I gave Ishtari my spare datapad, the chip with my lockbreaker codes, and some quick instructions in their use, then she and the Trianii headed downward for the ground level. Mason and I watched for a short time, then took the nearest skywalk over to our destination. Inside we took the stairs down, rather than the float tubes, to avoid being seen by more people than necessary. I've never trusted float tubes anyway, I've never liked the falling sensation they give me.

The door into the seventh level wasn't locked and behind it we found nothing more sinister than a small home decorating firm that specialized in exotic non-Human environments. We didn't even pretend interest and left after a quick glance around. Six and five had looked like possibles for a short time, but they turned out to simply be a semi-legal escort service. Four was empty, dead empty, not a cube wall, not a dusty desk, not even a single orphaned trash can, so I locked the door behind us and we moved on.

Part way down the stairs my helmet, swinging from the length of my arm, beeped with the soft incoming tone. I reached in and hit the chin switch then raised the helmet to my ear to hear better. There was a fuzzy sort of tap, like someone flicking the mic on the other end, and then a long pause, repeated twice more, a longer pause, two flicks, a long hiss like close breathing and a single flick. Nothing. Minus One. They were on the first sub-floor and still hadn't found a thing. I replied in kind: flick, pause, flick, pause, flick, long pause, flick-flick, short hiss, flick-flick-flick-flick. Nothing. Four. Even if the enemy heard us, and could break the encryption, there was no way they could interpret what they had heard, if they even recognized it as a signal.

At the door to the third floor I sliced through the lock code as easily as I had the others and Mason and I slid through the opening as quietly as we could. There wasn't anything as obvious as a guard standing just inside, but we could feel it, both of us. There was someone here who probably shouldn't be.

The floor was laid out like an office, with permanent walls and doorways and corner offices with windows so that managers could look out through them at the menials like dictators looking down on the slaves below. I checked the ceiling and corners for security cams, but I didn't see anything. Moving slowly, Mason and I crept forward, helmets forgotten and hanging by our sides. I kept one hand on his back, feeling the muscles beneath even through the leather jacket he wore, and kept glancing behind us. The last thing I wanted was to be surprised from behind by one of the thugs that had Sloan or by an innocent security guard simply doing his duty.

A door closed somewhere ahead of us and we slowed down even farther, my hand relaying to me all the information I needed about where we were going and how fast. Easing up around the corner of a cube, we stopped, and I peeked over Mason's shoulder to see why. Through an office window we saw a man cross to a desk. I risked leaning out a little farther and all the blood drained from my face when I saw who was sitting behind that desk.

Jayek.

I didn't realize that I had spoken out loud until Mason asked me a question. "Crash, can you see what he's saying?"

My only reply was to repeat the words I was seeing. "Good. We should hear back from Thalus about the raid in the next ten minutes or so. Death won't be able to sit there so smugly next time and say that he and his have done no fighting."

The other man had his back to the window, so I hadn't a clue what he was saying. Jayek's response gave me something to work with at guessing though. "Yeah, we'll keep him around until I can't get anything more out of them. He should be good for a couple more raids, maybe an innocent casualty or two of my

 

love how you described the transformation from Cade to Qui-Gon

 

What the others said - the transformation from Mason to Qui was great! Can't wait for more!

Shaindl