Vong War Annals – “On the South Side…” 5.22.08

    Kiiara frowned, fighting the urge to bite her lip with a healthy dose of animosity and instead chose to grit her teeth even harder.  While she tried to keep in mind the lessons Kal’buir had taught her about remaining inconspicuous, she had to admit her temper was getting the better of her.
    “Father would not be pleased,” she muttered under her breath.
    The southern side of the Citadel–a lame attempt by a group of grandeur-chasing warlords to make their capital sound like a kingdom–was easily summed up as being the grotto of the city.  While she wore her tattered cloak as a means for disguising herself, there were plenty of others dressed similarly and she blended right on in with the lot of them.  At least, she thought she had.
    Kiiara rounded a corner, ducking under a low crossbeam and picking up the pace of her walk some more.  A window caught her eye up ahead at another cross-street, and and she rounded that corner she watched the reflection to confirm she was, indeed, being followed.  Four of them as best she could tell, though if they were Imperial operatives–or whatever the hell they called themselves now–then there would be a hand-off surveillance group nearby as well.  Playing it cautious, she overestimated for a total of ten unfriendly types.
    She let her mind drift a bit, thinking back to Kal’or’s lessons.  Were he in this position, what would he do?  Given the covert nature of her presence in the Citadel, the possible civilian casualties around her–which would turn to enemies quickly if they a fight–discretion was the primary objective.  Secondary would be losing the tail, which she had been trying to do for the past fifteen minutes to no avail.  So, falling back from a peaceful solution the only other choice would be to convince them to leave her alone.
    An alleyway approached on her left, Kiiara held her step for an extra second to line herself up with an oncoming group of people and darted behind them into the alley.  She doubted it would lose her tail as there was no other place to disappear to, really, though it at least gave her some time.  The alley stretched back a good way, with a wide hall opening to the right just ahead that she made a run for.
    Turning the corner she came up against the back of a building, doors obviously sealed shut though she still tried to open them half-heartedly.  It didn’t look like a good place for the impending confrontation, and as she turned around to double-back her face ran into something hard and sent her reeling backwards into the wall.
    “Aww, sorry about the luv,” said a voice in that distinctly Imperial accent.  “We’re a bit tired of walking now, thought we’d settle this like civilized soldiers.”
    Kiiara’s cheek burned, the blood already rushing to swell up there and pounding the flesh around her.  She could feel the adrenaline releasing itself to her muscles, fingers already twitching.  The war had been long and hard, and while she was no stranger to taking lives or violence this was one of the first times she had faced so many by herself completely isolated from allies.  Kal’buir would be laughing at these fools, not sacred.
    “I’m no soldier,” she muttered, lowering her head under the cloak and closing her eyes.  Put the fear in them, Kat’ika, and you’ve already won the fight.  
    “What’d you say?” Said another voice, the group having grown to nine men around her.  
    “I dunno,” said the first man.  “Care to repeat that, luv?”
    “I said,” Kiiara hissed, hands reaching under her cloak and wrapping themselves around two cool metal cylinders.  “I’m no soldier.”
    The Force flowed into her mind, arms pulling back and cloak flying off as she thumbed the ignition switches on her twin lightsabers.  The look of shock and awe on their faces fueled her, reassuring her that she had the upper hand for the next few seconds.  That’s all I need
    The blades converged on the neck of the first man, head rolling off with no effort as he swept both blades in a raking fashion across the chest and torso of two others.  She followed the motion with her body, willing the blades to be extensions of herself in some kind of lethal dance, the lekku she had hidden under her cloak swinging around with her like an animal’s tail.
    She could sense one of the men, near the back of the group, become aware of what was happening and as she came out of her spin she released one of the violet blades.  It flashed like a blaster bolt across the alleyway into his chest, burning there as he collapsed.  One man turned his head to follow the blade’s path, which she jumped towards and used as a springboard to leap away from the pack and into the clear.
    Reaching out through the Force and with her left hand, she called her second lightsaber back to her hand from the dead man’s chest and smiled.  The men were staring at her, not quite moving, and she wasn’t sure if that was because of what she had just done or because they were realizing she wasn’t exactly a Twi’lek or a human.  She was a half-breed, a hybrid that had long and thin lekku sprouting from the back of her head and pale, peach skin well exposed by her risque clothing.
    “Okay,” she huffed, “who’s next?”

“:)
–Jinx

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