Log:Echoes Through the Ages IX

Echoes Through the Ages IX

OOC Date: April 23, 2020
Location: Delaya, Alderaan System
Participants: Barad, Vhe Tenara, Ban Iskender, Elrych Cometburn, Lokir, Vena, Aryn Cole

The doors shut behind Aryn's party, sealing all their own as if programmed to do so. Ahead, the corridor expands into a massive manufacturing plant. Machines building machines, the sound is overwhelming with a sea of moving parts, arms, and showering of sparks in random places at once. In this mechanized menagerie, a single operators platform lay ahead bathed in light from above. It was here that Princess Lana Panteer, and her exiled blond haired soldier waited for Aryn and company to arrive.

Lana was taller, exotic, and beautiful. Raven black hair was brushed straight and cupped a tanned face with yellow haunted eyes. Her lips, painted black, parted at the group's arrival.

"That's far enough." Kier declares, twirling a small DE-10 handcannon into view before cocking its hammer with a loud click and angling it at the group.

"I thought we had a tail. It seems you can't do anything without your sister finding out." Lana said, activating one end of her yellow lightsaber, then the other; the elegant staff was twirled into a defensive position.

"Don't worry about it, beautiful. /This/ is an ambush. By the end of this little display, they'll be a memory and we'll be gone."

Aryn steps from the corridor and holds up a hand as she begins to look around the massive room. The platform they all stood on was an elevated place, and beneath it, and as far as the eye could see, conveyor belts wound a convoluted track with all manner of obstacles. "Kier! This ruse must end." Aryn said before Kier fired a loud blaster shot that pocked the floor ahead of the smaller blonde Cole. "Our purpose, dear sister, must not be interrupted. I hate to do it, but you've left me no choice.-- Now come along.. You should remember these guys, yeah? House Rist. They're your /biggest/ supporter. Two point five million credits to lure the Princess of Alderaan here. Another million for every Jedi that accompanied her. Hah! HAH HAH! Too easy." Declares Kier.

"Quite. Come along, Kier.."

Vhe's gaze sticks on Kier and that handcannon as her hand lowers to the hilt of her saber. It may be a stunsaber but as she draws it free of her belt, she turns the tip down and towards the ground. It hisses to life and she lets that wary gaze sweep over Lana as well. "So much for family," she whispers most for herself. The concept of it all makes her skin crawl and tension builds along the lines of the initiate's shoulders.

There is a quick glance to the side at Aryn as she reasons with her brother. Or tries to.

"I know wise folk have said 'never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake' but in this instance I feel compelled to interrupt," Ban states with a cold, dry tone, igniting his own white blade as he steps purposefully toward the exiled pair ahead. In the back of his head, he knows this is unwise: bad reconnaissance, House Rist, 'ambush', but the younger soldier is focused on preventing another escape.

Elrych Cometburn stood there with his sunglasses on, too busy trying to figure out exactly what he was looking at to notice anything else. "Alright... I'm not afraid to admit. I'm missing something..." A hand extends towards Lana, "Like why you're hanging out with Doc's delinquient brother." A look to kier, "No Judgements..." Both hands come up, "So is there anyway we can sit..." Aryn's brother starts to go on. This causes the Corellian to sigh and pick his black and gold trimmed lightsaber from his belt. "So much for family indeed... at least Im worth more than that Trandoshan on Rori, aye Lord Bang." The blue blade comes to life and the Jedi assumes a stance.

Zan sort of blinks as this starts to play out, and since they're here already she doesn't even fuss. Her lightsaber is brouht out in a heartbeat, as she stands with Aryn. "We can choose our own family," she says fiercely. "We are family." Her lightsaber ignites with bright green, rather than blue, but it's there, a very solid thing, the sounds of the lightsabers whirring in the huge metallic space. Zan takes a momsnt, reaching for the Force. Her eyes close briefly, and then open just before she says, "There's something moving towards us, and fast. Black smoke!"

Apparently Vena's just wandering after all of the cool kids this week. First she got blew up on Ryloth. Now she's going to help out with this here mission. The tall Chiss is in her armor and there's a squint as the black 'smoke' starts to fill in around them, "Princess, we've got company." she states as she starts to circle a bit in place. This couldn't be good.

Barad sighs out one long, slow raged breath, his big 'ole floopy ears drooping at Lana's declaration and then suddenly perking up as he catches wind of the strange dark breeze and the shadowy figures rising on up out of it. Well, nothing for it then. Given the number of unfortunate developments here, consecutively timed and nigh unto "piling on," Barad hazards a glance or two in the directions the rest of the team may not have the luxury of being able to pay attention to, focussed (as they should and must be) upon the figures threatening them from afar. *Check flanks. Check Six. Check Up. Check Down.* Barad watches the wispy shades with trepidation and misgivings. What . . . are . . . those?

Lokir takes a step or two back as the lightsabers ignite. The blades glint off his mirrored, horned helm. Family squabbles were one thing. Combat duty was par for the course. But this...the smell of the energy blades set his teeth on edge. He was here on the word of an old Alliance contact who was a mutual connection and could vouch for Lokir's trustworthiness, silence, and antipathy towards all things imperial and orderly. But this..."Might need a bigger paycheck" he mutters to himself. Still, he keep his ears, eyes, and nose sharp as things begin to escalate, tightening his grip on his trusty pistol as the wisps appear.

Stealth field generators were cutting edge technology. Blend that with 4000 years of generational Assassin history, and the name Rist ought to make one's blood run cold. Indeed, there was black smoke, and it glided across the platform in a sudden and haunting fashion. The rasp of poisoned blades sounded in unison, heard over the constant mechanic sound of the automated machines all around them.

"How touching." Kier called. "You've not yet earned your duel with me, Iskender. What's the saying? If the fight is fair, you're doing it all wrong. Hahaha!" Kier stepped off the edge of the platform then, dropping out of sight.

Lana raised her free hand while the other lifted the double bladed lightsaber. Aryn was taken hold of by some unseen Force, sailing past Zandra, Vena, and Ban. Aryn screamed and Lana laughed. Lana threw Aryn over the edge of the platform to land below where the machines were. She hit a conveyor belt hard. And while pain needed time to process, ever sense in her body elected to scream all at once to MOVE. An orange hot metal iron slapped down where she JUST was subsequent to her rolling away. Its moving metallic arm swinging toward her in its circuit to acquire another component leaves Aryn tumbling forward, rising now with a lightsaber in hand and activated. Separated from the others, Aryn is surrounded by similar black smoke, and having to contend with obstacle course created by the manufacturing arms.

UP ABOVE, on the PLATFORM WHERE EVERYONE ELSE IS (for now), the BLACK SMOKEY figures manifest into figures emerging like static as their stealth fields collapsed. Wearing shadowsuits and cloaks of shadowsilk, these Assassins bear only a single yellow arm band marking them as the true House Rist. There were three assassins per person and the assassins moved to engage in combat immediately, wielding onyx fashioned weapons that glow with poison.

Lana remained on the platform for a moment, then stepped off like Kier had, joining him on a skiff to fly above. Her lightsaber deactivated as they disappeared into the darkness.

"Aryn!" Vhe calls out as she sees the Doctor lift up and sail through the air out of sight. There is little time to consider as the black smoke reveals figures that do not look to have good intentions. She takes a step back and widens her stance as her stunsaber life, the white reflected in her amber gaze. Her robes cut short sleeved and long in the back brush through the lingering clouds of inky black.

There is a sudden growl at the back of her throat and Vhe thrusts her hand out, the muscles in her left arm jumping and tensing up as her fingers splay and palm faces to the side. The Force leaps invisibly from her to grip at the closest assassin. Her jaw tenses and with an audible "OOOOOMPH" from her lips she thrusts the assassin back and through the other two to send them sprawling.

"He has a singularly irritating laugh," Ban observes at Kier's taunting, before repartee is abandoned abruptly at the farflung Lady Cole. A sharp profanity is muttered through a tight jaw, as the soldier finds himself beset by a trio of shadowy figures out of Alderaanian legend. "I have no time for ghosts," he informs the three sharply, thrusting his sword through the first with a lunge, and slashing across the knee of another in an effort to fight toward the princess these assassins were summoned for.

There is something to be said for lack of fore-sight and confusion, but when someone you thought was nice starts ordering your attack... then force grabbing your friend and sending them flying into a very dangerous factory, it was time to be serious and put the threat down. "Alright! That's it! I am TIRED of ATTRACTIVE women ignoring my QUESTIONS!" The Jedi takes a deep breath and on the exhail and audible thunder clap sounds. His hair swirls around as a wind picks up around him, swirling the dust and small debries of the factory around him. Just as soon, the flow of air disipates and the Jedi's siluette is the faintest of blues. THat too seems to disipate after a moment. THose sensative to the power would feel the Force raging through him like a gourging stream. Calm, but unqestionable powerful. "Watch..." Elrych says to the three who square off with him...

With inhuman speed, he twists his blue blade. The beam coems up in a low arch, slicing the first assasin in twain from lower left torso to upper right shoulder. His body twirls, spinning, his blade swinging side ways within inches of the second's nose. While he may have avoided the first strike, the Jedi's reprisal is deadly as the liquid motion of his lightblade slides slickly through his core, evaporating and eviserating the assins heart. The blade is withdraw, shaded eyes looking towards the last assasin, "You do not bring regular blades to a lasersword fight, kids..."

He can feel Vhe's energy, her movements, it brings a smirk to his lips.

Zan is not impressed. Though not for the same reasons as Elrych. She scowls as she spies Aryn go flying and that green blade of hers is moving, as is she, with speed that is significantly more than her usual. Those who've seen her plod through the obstacle course? Yeah, this is NOT that speed. She whirls in a circle, her cloak also billowing about her. The first assassin isn't quite where she expects him or her to be. Perhaps the stealth cloaking thing is still somewhat in effect, but by her second swing, she's hit her stride, and that assassin goes flying off the platform missing a leg. The third one? He ends up in two pieces, and Zan turns to face the one she's got left. "We need to concentrate these guys so we can go help Aryn," she calls. She moves towards the edge of the platform, quite definitely intending to do just that.

Vena red gaze swings from the three assassins that sprung up from the blackness and the long legged Chiss decides to take a running leap onto one of the conveyor belts, the old woman bending and then snapping back up with her vibrosword as she does. "You'll have to excuse me, I'm rusty on these new dance moves the youths are doing these days. My hips...they don't move like they used to." she muses to them.

Barad thinks, "Well. That sure went downhill, and it went downhill in an *awful* big hurry . . . " And perhaps more literally than might otherwise rightly be expected, as various shapes swarm down at them and various folks leap off of the platform. And then it's all just a haze of murder: stabbing knives and glowing poison. Barad quite quickly finds himself fighting for his very life against the grim sepulcher shadow - assassins bearing in with hostile intent . . . And yet, despite their terrifying shadow - aspects, the forms assailing them are just 'men.' Who move as men do. Armed with knives. Which cut as knives do. And these aspects are all - too - familiar to Barad. From the Slavers' Pits of the Hutts to the darkened alleyways of the K-H on Nar Shad, blocking and ducking bladed weapons is a thing he's done before. A lot. Barad observes Vhe's clever move, in toppling over Vhe's own three assailants. "Clever indeed. . . . so, let's . . . make that '_stick_'!" Barad vows, rolling a Merr-Sonn Adhesive Grenade right into the midst of Vhe's "Forced pile-up." Not like those folks will be running too far, sprawled out on their faces . . . and -that- should free up the Jedi to do far more useful, urgent tasks! A 10 meter sphere of pink bubblegum later, the assassins are getting to know one another's . . . . armpits . . . and Vhe is freed of the bother of dealing with them. Free to focus a Jedi's superlative skills and talents elsewhere!

Aryn is surrounded on the belt, all of them with weapons out ready for the kill. The belt moves along as Aryn takes her duelist stance, twisting her lightsaber into a short lived spin before slashing down two in a single pass. They hit the ground as the others charge. Aryn ducks low, avoiding a passing torch arm that bings an assassin across the head and knocks them off the edge of the belt. She tumbles over a low bearing arm and twists back to begin avoiding the swings of her would-be killers.

The others on the platform are shown that Rist's reputation is well earned. The bite of the poisoned blades cut where armor is weakest, and it burns as the substance spreads beneath the flesh in a cold alarming away. They move with practiced fluidity, save the ones stuck in a dog-pile of glowing goop! The fight is not yet over.

Vena is pursued by three onto her belt, and they chase after her. Although one of the arms she dodged catches an assassin in the chest and carries them off the edge with a loud OOF. The other two attack. Vena should be able to see she has more obstacles coming down the line too.

Goo. It takes Vhe a moment as she was preparing to makes her foes dance again with the use of the Force to realize that she's had an assist. A glance back and she see Barad, a nod of head and she spins about in a flare of wild curls, the white stunsaber held back and away as she sweeps her hand back up and draws upon the Force. As if it were waiting like a friend to reach back out to her she snaps hold of the middle one as her fingers curl.

Heaving in a break she sweeps the poor unfortunate soul one way, slamming into one and then back the other with a twist of her hand, sending the other with a sort of leg sweep to land on his ass. The one she has a hold of is slammed downwards towards the ground.

The tension in her arm eases some and she releases, a smile slowly pulling across her lips in brief satisfaction as she nods to Barad again.

Ban Iskender still moves as if the blade in his hand were made of steel rather than a ray shield as he twists back and forth at the waist, blade held upright in a traditional saber guard, executing a pair of deft parries. A short, sudden feint at his unhurt opponent starts them backward a step, giving the young nobleman room enough to leap across to the mechanical conveyer, below, where he had seen Aryn ringed by poisoned knives. "Royal blood does not easily spill, vassals." Landing solidly, he ducks one overhead beam, and vaults over the welding arm, finding Vena are her tormentors between himself and Aryn. A sharp slash and thrust cuts one down, as he quips, "I heard talk of dancing and thought to cut in."

The single Rist left attempts to attack Elrych, who easily and quickly moves out of the way of his blade. It's so quick that as the assasin's arm to extended, Elrych's blue blade swipes up and seperates the apendage from he rest of the Rist's person. He doesn't stick around to hear his screams of pain, or to whitness him pass out from the shock. The Jedi is... sliding across the factory floor and towards Lorik and the Assasin's asailing him. His blade humms, ripping it's way through one before barely missing another as he swings with great skill and care. He glances over to look at Vhe before he looks back to the Assasin's... "Hello There..." Hopefully they'll focus on him instead.

Zan is down to one assassin playing games with her, and she easily dodges their paltry attempt to hit her this time. She flashes a mischievous grin and then jumps to the conveyor belt, apparently with the same idea as Ban. She however is further along the platform and so she ends on the other side of Vena, where she's behind a couple of Aryn's attackers. There's a moment as her feet hit the metal of the belt, and there's a clang. That's all the warning they get before Zandra explodes into motion, still moving blindingly fast as she she swings that lightsaber. The first swing catches nothing but air, but Zan's follow through removes two of the assassins targetting Aryn.

Vena's doing 'okay', but, that okay quickly lands her in 'oh crap!' mode. She gets hit and that doesn't make her feel any better. Then there's a bit of a shift in the belt and she goes falling backwards, ass over tea kettle. The sword goes falling into the black abyss of WHATEVER is down there and she growls, "I'm just going to have to cut your head off with a dagger." she grunts out as she starts to get up..."In just a minute..."

In the "Muay Thai" style of kickboxing, it's called a "teep" kick. A snapping, linear front - kick, whose main purpose is to open up the range, by pushing one's opponent backwards. Elsewhere and elsewhen, in a "galaxy far far away and a long long time in the future" this kick has been made quite famous in the movies! ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqXggZU3eE ) As it turns out, it's Really Quite Handy for punting people down into wells. **OR**, as the case may be, punting Ninjas into bublegum. "This . . . is . . . Spa--- . . ." Barad shouts, " . . . ce glooop!" And it is, indeed, a very "gloopy" gloop of Space goop. Having thereby facilitated the Ninja <---> gloop introductions, Barad concludes this interlude of "diplomacy" and rushes over to see if he needs to heal Lokir . . . there *was* just quite a lot of stab - stabbing just now . . .

Lokir wobbles a bit as the poison begins to bite. The assassins multiply before his eyes from three to six to twelve. Drawing a bead on the phantoms before his eyes, blasting two of the assassins into nothingness. The imaginary ones. "Covering fire..." Whatever it took, Lokir would not sell his life cheaply. But his companions have other ideas. As Barad sends one assassin careening into the goop and Vhe steps in to distract another, Lokir tries to steady himself to send more shots downrange.

The fight was getting more and more complex as our heroes began to trickle out onto the conveyor belts to fight. Assassins fell, some were stuck in adhesive grenade goop, and some put up one hell of a fight.

Aryn ran one assassin through, shoving their body off the belt before twisting about and cutting another down just before he was smashed by an arm. Aryn ducked and tumbled, coming up a moment later to put her back to Zandra. "Fancy seeing you here!" She yelled over the sound of machinery. A glance down and Aryn saw that the belt curved and angled downward. Moving up the track toward the two Jedi (Zandra and Aryn) six more assassins in their smoke form closed the distance. "We got more company!" She warned and moved ahead, lowering her lightsaber to trail behind her from her left side.

The skiff that carried Kier and Lana lowered down from the top. Kier held a glowing crystal of sorts before pocketing it. "HEY ISKENDER! Hahaha!" The noble gunslinger lights a smoke and points at Ban.

Lana raises her hand and Ban is suddenly separated from the belt he's on and cast further down. "STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER! HAHAHA!" Ban lands hard on another conveyor belt and he's all alone.. until four smoking figures begin to surround him.

The Force Vhe's ally for the moment, she feels the warning that alerts her and she whips about, crossing the distance towards Lokir to step in the way of the assassin on approach, her stunsaber coming down to slam into the blade that presents itself as a threat. Narrowing her gaze she swirls the saber and inverts it in an attempt to slash down on her foe. The move is lovely but ineffectual as the assassin blocks her attack.

She sweeps her foot back and settles into a ready stance. "We need to get to them."

Ban Iskender deflects the attack of his pursuer, allowing a short sniff when he sees his wounded for fail the leap. When the gentleman sees Vena upended, and a shadow assassin advancing on the prone Chiss, he holds his blade out to the side to block the path of attack. The pair of Rists press him again, one he deflects, but the other slips within his guard, and expertly aims their dagger at the seam above his chestplate, the blade skates up to bite into his jawline. Ban grunts sharply in pain; though his armor prevented the worst, he feels the bite of the blade, and the unmistakable sensation of his own blood flowing. The effect is to bend his lips in a sharp smile, and the single hissed word: "/Finally/."

Shoulder checking the assassin backward and spinning away to regain distance, he is interrupted by the reappearance of Kier and Lana, the former's taunting narrowing Ban's green eyes. His free hand reaches toward the distant traitor, for an I start thinking to try and rip the glowing.. whatever it is out of Kier's hand, but instead Ban himself is flung bodily across to crash hard into the fuselage of an incomplete speeder. Still dazed by his impact, the soldier's swings at the quartet of assassins who surround him are avoided. "Gentlemen," he managesto the four. "I've won one scar today, but I'm feeling greedy. Can any of you oblige me with another?"

"Yes, let's mop up here..." Elrych says in a calm an confident tone to Vhe just before launching forwards and cutting apart the Rist's arm from his body. The one's who's blade locked with Vhe's. He moves on then, to the onces Facing Barad, his blade swinging to take another one of them, before his jabbing saber insterts its self inside of a crate instead of the assasin. "Nice Dodge, man." He offers, pulling the blade from the box, a new orange melted hole in it that was clearly not supposed to be there. He stalks towards the last 2, twirling his brilliant blue blade around. Vrooomp. Vroomp, Vroomp.

Zan sees there's an arm coming, and she literally jumps atop it, then down again, staying easily on the conveyor belt and not getting hit. She does spare a glance over to Ban, where she can see him, as she slashes a couple useless times, warnings really. The sound of the lightsaber is quite clear even with the machinery moving and clanging. In the process, she slices through the assassin who followed her. Now though, she's a decision to make. There's a Ban and Vena that way, and an Aryn the other way - and only one Zan. At least she has a moment or two to make a decision. For the moment, she nimbly sidesteps the next bit of tubthumping machinery that uncaringly slams into the conveyor belt.

Vena gets tossed around like a rag doll for a moment and once she's settled she takes to one knee and screams at the men that are advancing. Frustration. It's a real thing. There's a nod to Ban, "Appreciated." she tells him. She then rises, vibrodagger springing to life in hand as she seeks armor and flesh to separate from the assassins bodies.

Barad thinks that these Ninjas are just simply being _so_uncivilized_ . . . stabbing at people who are -already- wounded? Well, good heavens, that's just _so_ rude. Barad hopes to put a few of them on a "time out" so that they can contemplate the folly and the error of their ways at length. Accordingly, another glop grenade now makes its way from belt to paw, from whence it's dropped, and there-after "hacky-sacked" into the knees of two more of the Scary Space Ninjas. *SGLOOUMP* Whew. That worked out well. "Lokir?" Barad calls out, seeing if the man is cogent enough to still respond, or if he requires immediate First Aid ?

Lokir drops to a knee in an attempt to steady his aim. Spying Vena and Ban still engaged, Lokir sends two shots into the fray to, if nothing else, distract the assasins. "Medic! Think the blades have a poison compound..."

The battle has grown a bit more fierce as Lana and Kier finally make their exit through another passage way far above. Kier's laughter heard the entire way. Below the platform upon which Elrych, Vhe, Barad, and Lokir are, Zandra and Aryn are fighting 5 master assassins. Vena is still contending with her two on a separate belt, and Ban is a few levels below the other two, dealing with his own four.

Aryn manages to avoid the automaton arms, tumbling again. She ducks under a sword swing, dances close to the edge of the belt to avoid another, but as she recovers, a sword strikes her across the face spilling her over on her belly to see down below. Her lightsaber deactivated and fell from her clasp. Rather than call it back to her gloved hand, Aryn screams. "BAAAAAN!" And like that, a lightsaber hilt flies straight to his hand. Aryn rolls back over and kips up to her feet, blood trailing down her cheek as she joined Zandra and took a Mando'ade defense stance.

As the last one falls to the searing blue blade wielded by Elrych, Vhe nods to him. "Going down to help." She declares to those left behind. The Ysanna moves quickly, covering the distance to the ledge and throws herself off the side. The air whips past the thick curls and as she lands heavily on the conveyor belt she remains crouched. The stunsaber hisses as her hand remains touching the belt before she pulls up just enough. She ducks her head back down quickly to make sure she is out of the way of one blow.

There is an immediate gasp as she feels it coming and rolls backwards right next to Vena and manages to stay out of the way of the second blow that is aimed for her. Pushing up she sweeps her hand out and its like an invisible blow. The Force hits one of the assassins and slamming into the poor figure sends the black shourded silhouette down into the depths and off the conveyor belt. Rising up to her feet she catches her breath, adrenaline rushing through her veins. "Need some help?" She asks of Vena.

Ban Iskender shakes his head once to clear the lingering haze of his telekinetically enforced relocation. The first of his four assailants strikes true, now leaving the lord with two wounds, before Ban can recover and ward off the remaining three. Even the stoic soldier recognizes the grim nature of his situation. Then he hears Aryn's scream, and sees her saber propelled to his hand. Igniting it casts the desperate melee in the blue light of a humming lightsaber, which he raises for an instant in salute, before bringing it down to cut off a massive mechanical arm that he no longer has the nimbleness to avoid. Turning fully around in the follow-through, he stabs an oncoming assassin through the chest, pulling the blade out through the dead man's side to regain his guard in a fight that suddenly seems more even.

Elrych pauses as Vhe jumps down, listening to the laughter from Aryn's brother. He lets out an annoyed growl, "DUDE... YOU SOUND WORSE THAN A DAMN HOLO-DRAMA VILLIAN!" He then drops off the side, his robes flapping as he falls fast. Landing on the same Conveyor as Vena and Vhe, he ducks and weaves out of the way of two arms, watching Vhe send the Assin flying and thim cutting into the last one that harrasses the Chiss. A nod to the both of them, "Ladies..." Lips turn up into a charming smile for Vhe before he hazards a look down to see Zandra and Aryn down lower. He jumps once more, landing in the middle of the two groups of assasins... "Well Hello there." HE offers, just before dodging out of the way of two more automations. His blade strikes true, ending one, before he swipes across, hitting an automation instead of his intended target.

Zan is in the middle of dodging automaton arms when Elrych arrives. "Bout time you got here," she teases her fellow Jedi Initiate. "It's quite a party; wouldn't be the same without you." That said, she finishes sidestepping and ducking, coming up to swinging at the those obnoxious assassins. She does get a glance to see where Ban is, and that he has a lightsaber in the process - of course being where she could see Aryn send hers his way certainly helps. She's calm still, focused on protecting her friends and getting the assassins to where they can't play this nasty trick on anyone ever again. She thrusts her lightsaber forward, impaling one and then her blade is sliced sideways, hitting a second on the back swing. Now she looks back to the platform to see if they are still okay up there.

Vena gives a look down and then back up, "My heroes." she grins at them, but its full of blood. Which is Vena's natural state. She was always into something. She gets herself up off of the belt and then staggers a bit, stepping on the body of one of the dead people. Legs. Wings. Thighs. It didn't matter. She jumps onto the service ladder and then starts to spindly crawl her way up it. The itsy bitsy Chiss went up the service ladder...

Barad's big 'ole floopy ears relax just a bit as his large brown eyes behold no immediate threats. Meanwhile, the gooped - up Space Ninjas experience a bit of a personal "Bubble Gum Crisis." OK. Whew! Good . . . No active foes in the immediate vicinity, no murder incoming, right at this moment. Unlimbering his MedPac, Barad sets to work on Lokir's injuries. A Scan. A Frown. "I think you are right!" Barad confirms, using THE SCIENCE, what the burning sensations of the wound in his own stabbed back -also- tell him. "Definitely poison. Acidic. Enzyme." Barad dials up a counter-toxin, administers it to Lokir, and also then shoots him up with 20 cc's of pure FizzyGlug for added good luck and good measure. Because: if that won't clear your double - vision right up, at least it'll give you cataracts! Erm, Whaaait?

Lokir grimaces from behind his faceplate, but manages to get onto his feet with Barad's support. "Thanks, Doc." The burning begins to subside and his vision starts to clear. "Let's reinforce the others."

Watching as Vena makes it to the ladder, Vhe is not far behing Elrych with a flare of curls and teal robes she lands on the next belt and leans and moves to avoid death, then ducks and jumps forward into a roll. The stunsaber is shut off with a hiss, the hilt still held in her hand as she extenads her arm once more. The Force is truly moving through her at at this point and she grasps the nearest assassin.

That body lifts into the air dramatically while limbs are still flailing about in an attempt to arrest the movement unseen. Amber eyes narrow and she gives a sweep of her hand to send the black ensconced figure over the side to join the other before.

She rises to her feet, adjusting to the flow of the belt.

The difficulty in being surrounded by legendary assassins is that they tend not to hesitate or waste opportunities like lesser opponents might, and Ban takes a third wound, a shallow stab that barely pierces his armor above the ribs, but the accumulation of injuries is beginning to tell. Still, the swordsman fights on. Favoring his right side heavily, conserving his movement until one of the foes draws near enough for a counterattack. Twice, the assassins gauge range correctly; the third time, Ban cuts one down with the very tip of his saber catching the Rist in the throat.

"Oh, you know... had to take care of a couple things..." Elrych says to Zandra just as Vhe lands down next to him. He lunges forwards in a fluid motion, running his blade through one of the Assasins, effectivly ending the threat on their level. He doesn't hesitate, "See you down lower!" He offers to those who would follow, robes flapping wildly as he drops off the edge and beside Ban. He ducks, he weaves, the motions of the automations already foreseen by the Jedi's precognative abilities. He swings his blade up, slicing the Assasin from apendix up to the top of his head, splitting his face righ down the middle. Elrych staggers back, a bit surprised. "Woah... ah, sorry." The body falls. He attacks another, but this Legendary Assasin is faster. "Thought you could use some help, Lord Bang!"

As Elrych takes out the last assassin on the belt with Zan and Aryn, then heads lower still to help out Ban, Zan flashes a grin at his answer. "Absolutely, wouldn't miss it." Zan in fact does follow down after Elrych, landing with a fairly gentle step. There are these new automatons in the way, and Zan continues her trend of whiffing her first shot, gauging range. Then she slams the blade through the assassin left there. "These guys," she announces for all to hear. "These guys totally did not get paid enough credits for this job." She glances up where the skiff left with the architects of the trap, and scowls. "I don't know about you, but I am totally starting to not like those guys."

Vena manages to climb up the ladder with all the elegance of a newborn giraffe. All legs and arms sticking out. She gets up to the top and flops over, "Gods I want to shuffle off this mortal coil." she grumbles as she feels something approaches and she looks up to Barad, "Ah, he who argues with top knots." she muses. "Good fighting." she tells him as she starts to get up.

Barad peers down over the edge of the platform. Hmmmm. My goodness, but that's a . . . long . . . long jump. Hmmmmmmm. Barad scans around for any other potentially available modes of trans-level egress. Ahah! A ladder! How . . . utterly old - school. Still, The Ladder sure beats The Plummeting. Barad takes it! (The Ladder, not The Plunge, that is.) On the landing, or thereabouts, Barad meets up with Vena. Another frown. A medpac scan. Another antidote administered. And then: A Smile! Yay, hooray! Three Cheers for The Science! He - who - Heals helps Vena regain her feet. No giraffic analogies needed now!

Lokir watches the last assassin fall with a sense of grim satisfaction. Moving towards Vena alongside Barad, Lokir pauses to hover over one of the assassin's corpses. A sniff of the air and Lokir's clawed gauntlet flashes out to palm a small black datapad and confirm no explosive traps on the bodies. Nodding with satisfaction, Lokir lopes off to regroup with the rest of the crew...some more bloodied than others, but all in one piece.

Aryn does not follow the others. She takes the next ladder up, and starts to climb up. By the time she crests the top, the small doctor grunts with exhaustion, pulling herself onto the platform and raising a hand toward the control panel situated at the edge. It takes an incredible amount focus, but the lever controlling the belts lowers without so much as a touch from the Jedi.

Everything in the facility comes to a halt then. Autonomous manufacturing arms stop swinging, and the belts slow to a pause. Yellow strobes begin to rotate and an alarm sounds, indicating that it was an unscheduled, emergency halt of operations.

The caped doctor walks to the edge of the platform to stare down below now that everything was unnerving and quiet. "LET'S GO, BEFORE AUTHORITIES SHOW UP AND MARK THIS SOME SORT OF SCANDAL!" Aryn wipes her cheek with a numbing agent of kolto, then bacta spray. It was time to go!

Barad nods. In the "Time of the Going," one simply goes. One -does- simply walk into the Factory District, be those sooty Gates guarded by Space Ninjas, or no. For although there is evil that never sleeps, it does seem to -rest- nicely in Bubble Gum, perforce. Barad spares one look behind, up to the rafters where the hover- skiff drifted. "Next Time, Laughing - Boy . . . *Next* Time . . . " Barad nods, and grins, then follows the others Home.