They kept to the side streets, avoiding anyone that they came across when they could. They also helped where they could. At one point they assisted in extinguishing a fire in a residential building that had been too close to one of the explosions. It didn’t take long to put out the flames, but it took even less time before both women were covered in soot and ash.

" Well we should have to worry about anyone recognizing you now, Ana." Sorsha quipped as she brushed off her clothing as best she could.

Vessana smiled as they continued further into town. " Dirt and grime, the newest fashions from Hapes this season."

Sorsha’s arm shot out in front of Vess, stopping her as they were about to round a corner. " Company."

The queen looked around the corner, at the group that was heading their way. "Trouble?"

Her assistant shook her head. " No, they’re ours. I recognize Colonel Delmonai."

" Damn. And that’s Ki Adi Mundi with him." She ducked back around the corner. " Of all the towns on this rock, we had to pick the one the command team landed in. What are the odds?"

" Actually, I choose this spot just for this reason Ana." Sorsha cringed when she turned and saw the look on Vess’ face, and hurried to explain. " I wanted someone we could trust and turn to if we got into trouble."

She looked around the corner again, then back at her assistant. " Probably a very wise decision. But if they see us now I can promise you that the Colonel will make getting us off Ukio his first priority, and I’m not ready to go home just yet."

Vessana spotted an alley across the street from their position and took Sorsha by the arm, pulling her in that direction. " Come on, we’ll go around them."

As Vessana and Sorsha ran towards an alley, Ren could only wonder about her strategy. <font color=lime> "So she's running away from her comrades, that's the smart thing to do in the middle of a battlezone."<font color=white> Ren thought sarcastically to himself as he lept from rooftop to rooftop observing the queen.


He tried to figure out just what in the blazes she was thinking. Being here in the first place was madness, but trying to evade your own side was just plain foolish. He didn't want to search her thoughts as to her plan, so as not to blow his cover, reaching out with the force to vessana would cause her to notice him since she herself was force sensative.

Suddenly the pair darted down a dark alley, and so Ren followed, into the night.

If it were possible, the night seemed to grow darker around the women as they stepped into the confines of the alley. Sorsha hated not trusting Vess, but she didn't like the idea of running down a darkened alley in the middle of a .... whatever the situation was.

It wasn't political, she understood politics as well as anyone. It wasn't even one faction, it was hundreds of different gangs planet wide that were running wild with the current Ukio government in chaos.

And here she was, following a woman that wasn't even suppose to be off the Hapan homeworld let alone in they system. Sorsha was tempted to contact the Colonel herself to get Vessana off Ukio before anything happened to her...

But now it was too late for that.

A scream sounded out through the darkness and, before Sorsha could stop her, Vessana was running full tilt down the alley toward the sound.

The assistant caught up with her at the end of the alley as they looked out into the open street. Fires engulfed most of the buildings across the street and were rapidly spreading to those that weren't already ablaze. The source of the scream lay on the ground, a young woman surrounded by more than a dozen men.

Sorsha could feel the queen tense with anger and reach for the blaster beneath her coat. She placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her momentarily.

"Ana, please,"she pleaded in a quiet whisper. "There are too many of them, you cannot fight them all."

Vessana's perfectly manicured fingers plucked the hand from her shoulder and retrieved the weapon from her belt. Crystal blue eyes focussed on a single man, his leather flack jacket decorated just a little differently than the rest. " I don't have to fight them all, Sorsha, just the one in charge."

Levelling the blaster with a steady hand, Vessana opened fire.

Looking down from the rooftops, Ren could no see that the two women had separated. Vessana was now running ahead of her assistant, to the other end of the alleyway where Ren could sense trouble.

<font color=lime>"I have a bad feeling about this." <font color=white> Grumbled Ren.


He lept to the building at the end of the alleyway so as to observe the scene below from the best vantage point.


It appeared that a group of thugs were beating on an unarmed woman, and Vessana, may the force bless her, was trying her best to intevene but was being held back by Sorsha. Ren's grip tightened on his saber, hoping, that in this Godforsaken madness she wouldn't get herself killed.

It seemed, at least momentarily, that Sorsha was getting through to the Queen Mother,Ren reneged his grip. The Vessana spun around and unholstered her blaster pistol, pointing it at the lead thug.

Ren reached round his back and pulled out his blaster rifle.It was very un-jedi like to have a blaster, but the situation called for it.

Pulling the Gun round and cocking it, Ren took aim for the thugs . . .

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Out of the Darkness between the thugs and the Queen spun the Shadow Jedi Knight, the only thing telling his existance being the flash of his sabre as he deflected the laserbolt up into the rooftops, shattering the Rogue Jedis Blaster, leaving him unhurt other than his pride. Reaching out with the force, he wrenched the blaster from the surprised Queen Mothers hands before turning and leaping into the gang of even more surprised thugs. Within seconds it was over, the thugs heaving bodies warming the earth around the woman they were attempting to desecrate.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

"That should see for some good fertile farmland." he muttered to himself as he helped the woman up. "Stay indoors, out of trouble."

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Turning away instantly, he lept into the Darkness, reappearing as the woman ran away next to the Queen, startling her handmaiden to a massive extent.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

"I'm warning you..." she stammered, her protests being cut off with a wave of the Shadows hand.

"I have not come to hurt you, but rather talk. Or if you would prefer to fight, this can be over as quickly or as long as i wish."

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> There was an arrogence in his voice, but it was bred only by the mans cold confidence in his abilities. His sabres had already disappeared onto his belt as he awaited her reply.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

Rossk's group, his contacts, had got caught in the blaze of blaster rifle blaster battle. Both sides had cover, taking shots quickly, and going back. Some from each side charged, and were hewed down. The other gang was losing, by the amount of members they had in the beginning, they were outnumbered, and soon they broke off, running down the alleys. Rossks group followed, going down the alleys. When he caught up to one, he leaped upon him, and dug his claws in the jugular of the fleeing human. He lifted the man up in the air, and felt the warm blood drip upon his scales, and wathced the mans eyes glaze over as the crisp hands of death grasped him. Joy remained throughout the trandoshan.

Sorsha bristled at the brashness of the man that now stood before them. " Ana, you cannot possibly-" She was silenced yet again as Vessana put up a hand halting her aid’s protest.

Vessana stared down the man, her facial expression giving away nothing. " You wield your weapons very skillfully, and I am certain that the young lady whose life you just saved will always remember that fact. However, I not know who you think you are but your presumptions and arrogance speak volumes of who you are. Now, this is going to finish as quickly as I say, and I say this conversation is over."

She held her hand out, palm up. " So if you will be so kind as to return my blaster to me we will be on our way. Or would you prefer to leave two women unarmed in a situation a precarious as this?"

((oops... sorry bout the double post)

(OOC: Ooops Liz! Double post! :p )

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Contempt to a lesser being from a Royal, how quaint...<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> He thought, allowing her to read his thought.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> His eyes drifted down to her lightsabre, and then back to her face.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

"Undefended? Do not attempt to mislead me. I have faced down a Sith Lord, a petty colonial such as yourself is of scant worry. Intimidation will get you nowhere. You <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> will<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> hear me out, i shall not waste a trip. Shall we take this somewhere more quiet?"

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Dakkon turned into the shadows, and with a single kick splintered the door to an appartment block, obviously unoccupied.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

"After you <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> your highness<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->."

Before Ren Could even pull the trigger on his blaster rifle, a dark shadow sprung from the darkness taking out most of the Thugs in one fell swoop of a lightsaber and sending the rest scurrying like wamp rats.

The figure then positioned himself in between the Queen mother and her means of an exit.

Ren could not figure out what was being said, and he would still no dare reach out with his Jedi senses.


Soon the man turned as though to leave, but instead kicked in a door of a nearby apartment block and headed inside with Vessana and Sorsha in tow.

<font color=lime>Where in the blazes are they going now!? <font color=white> Thought Ren.


The trio dissappeared into the building. There was an open window on the first floor where he could sense they were going, but he could not see inside as there was little visible light.

Producing a pair of thermo-binocs from his belt, Ren gazed through them an indeed saw that they were in the room, but he could not here.

<font color=lime>"Hapes forgive me for what I'm about to say but, Damn that woman!!"