The Fall of an Empire [Slow]

Lucas Vega sat down on a mat in his training room, while Marcellus paced back and forth. "They've put you up a division, my son." The large black man stopped and had a drink of water. "This is either going to be very good, or very very bad."

Vega opened his eyes, watching his Marcellus. "Father, I promise you, I will defeat him. Age is but a number, not a measurement of skill. I don't care if he's got 7 years on me." He stood up, walking over to his wardrobe, which housed his fighting attire. He took off the black robes, and set them down. Before dressing himself in the cyan boxers, and his footwraps; then having Marellus put the handwraps on him.

"Half an hour until the fight begins. Make me proud, son." He brought Lucas into a hug. "Remember, you don't have to keep fighting if you don't want to. I'll support any path you take." The large man then let his son go, and began to walk out of the training room. "Don't push yourself too hard." He said.

--

Lucas walked down the catwalk of the arena, looking around at all the people in the small stadium. Not knowing of his connection to the force, he was unable to mask it. The fight quickly began with the 22-year-old man and Lucas. This man was a brawler, very slow, but with devastating hits. Vega used this to his advantage, attacking his opponent with quick strikes to the upper body and head. The entire fight changed when Lucas was caught off guard with a quick jab to the chest, instantly knocking the wind out of him. He hit the ground, looking up at the man. Now or never. He reached out for the man's grounded ankle, hoping to either pull him down, or break it.

"UMU we're biding our time here, we need to do something if we are going to get out of this...UMU can you fake a self destruct signal?" Huggle's tone was nervous he was unsure of his coming fate

UMU looked over at Huggle in his cockpit, and chimed "Roger, Roger."

The robot smashed some of the keys in the cockpit for a few seconds and then began pulling several levers above him the robot reached under it's seat and ripped out several wires an alarm began going off in the ship.

The robot began to shriek frantically saying "Danger, Danger." The robot paused for a moment and then began to speak once more "Roger, Roger."

Huggles eyes grew to the size of pool balls as the robot began to panic he began to yell "Wait...Is that good or bad? Dammit I knew I shouldn't have bought the cheapest robot I could find in the sleaziest alley way on this side of the galaxy!"

The craft slowly continued it's path towards the flag ship, with a constant alarm ringing in the background.

Val could feel a cold sweat build across his neck and back, his stomach sink, as the Mandalorian announced he didn't buy any of his story. Well, he supposed, that was about as expected. It had been something of a weak lie, but he had hoped it would have been passable enough so as to not warrant further investigation.

On the bright side, having his cover as an escaped hostage more or less blown meant he could focus more on not getting shot by pirates and worry about the Mandos later. He took point almost earnestly, eager to avoid being questioned further, and led onward to the escape pods. The nice thing about taking point while the Mandalorians talked among themselves was that he could work on constructing another lie, or at least ponder the feasibility of doing so. The easiest answer, assuming there was present some reliable method of seeing through lies as quickly as the Mandalorian had previously, would just be to drop his cover and announce he was an active GA Intelligence operative.

But, that option would also be the most likely to get him shot, seeing as he was more or less opposing these Mandalorians on most days. He couldn't exactly dodge them and make a break for the escape pods; he had no method of distracting their attention, no way to keep them from shooting him when he ran.

So maybe the truth was his best option, unfortunate as it may have sounded. But he could give a false name and more or less take care of any issue there. Truthfully, being turned over to the Imperials didn't scare him quite as much as these Mandalorians, the enemy, did. There was something about those helmets that just terrified him.

But as it turned out, he had a little less time to prepare himself than he would have liked. The Mandalorian decided to pin him more or less against the wall while he uttered a stream of profanities and what seemed to be threats, along with another brief mention of a better story.

So Val took a breath, deciding to just dish out the truth no matter where it got him. "I wasn't lying when I said I was GA Intelligence - I've spent the last four or five years doing antipiracy, deep-cover stuff. I was actually working my way into the chain of command here before you so kindly came in. Been here since the war started, give or take."

Jax uneasily eyed the others around him, knowing they didn’t have much time and so he did as he was told and went into an escape pod with Shadow, Gardner and the rest. Once inside he found his seat in the corner and grimaced a bit. The Imperials were taking them aboard as soon as they got free? It really as another fire. At least the pirates had kept him alive… who knows what the Imperials would do. Throw him to the alliance? Probably.

The Gardener took his seat next to Jax glancing at the force user, whom he’d been aware of since his kidnapping. “Try and surprise your presence if you can, boy. If these guys know what you are, you can bet those Imperials can too. Stick to the darker areas and do not draw attention to yourself,” the Gardener rasped. “If all else fails, we have the Mandalorians… Mandalorians always have plans. At least that’s what I’m told.”

Jax gave a slight nod and an uneasy “right…” and proceeded to make himself as small as physically possible.

The Gardener’s companions, though reluctant at first, gave their leader a slight nod before disappearing into their own escape pod with Magician.

The Stormtroopers hurried down the hallways of the ship, taking up positions where the escape pods would land. No blasters were directly pointed at the pods, the Captain having realized that -starting- a fight with Mandalorians would not be the wisest life decision he's ever made. But the implication was clear. The passengers of said life-pods were now in Imperial Jurisdiction, regardless of the space zone they were in. When the pods opened, each would be greeted by an Imperial Sergeant who droned on in some form or variation of another.

"You are now aboard an Imperial vessel. All Non-Mandalorians are to hand over their weapons to Imperial authorities immediately by order of the Captain. You Mandalorians are requested at the bridge."

The Sergeants would then begin confiscating weapons from the slaves (if there were any), and from any one who didn't look like they were a Mandalorian. Tower would be approached by one Sergeant, who didn't exactly salute but lowered his blaster at least. "If you require a guide to the bridge, I've been ordered to escort you there."

Three stormtroopers advanced on the smugglers ship that had been captured. These ones had their blasters raised and at the ready, one of them calling in to the Captain; "Come on out with your hands up, or we will breach your ships hatch and seize you!" Depending on what the smuggler did, they'd either pat him down and disarm him when he came out and shock his droid, or storm in and do the same thing. They'd attempt to haul him out and drag him to the bridge if the latter was true.

On the bridge, Captain Dernsorl was waiting. His gloved hands were clasped behind his crisp uniform back. His rank code displayed on his chest in typical Imperial fashion. Once everyone arrived, he'd nod once. "Sergeant, you are dismissed. Welcome aboard the Agitator." He held out his arms slightly, as if welcoming them aboard. He had a quick smile that came up now, but his eyes had the typical no nonsense look to them. "Firstly, I would like to apologize to you Mandalorians for this...inconvenience. As a show of faith, you have been allowed to retain your blasters. Consider it an apology gift for almost blowing you and your ship out of space. As for -you-" He rounded on the smuggler they had seized, "My men are searching your ship now. If we find any illegal substances, I'm going to drag you down to the cell and extract every bit of information from you I can." He grinned, revealing his teeth now. "It won't hurt a bit, I assure you."

The Mandalorians piled into their respective escape pods, and Tower entered last sealing the door and setting the escape pod to launch. The pod had barely left the ship before there was an unsettling lurch, and he watched the three men with interest while the Gardener whispered advice to the rogue force wielder and the GAG Agent introduced himself. Tower knew that the Syndicate would want to speak with the three, and he didn't need orders to tell him they'd want the other two in Magicians pod as well. They were always on the lookout for force wielders and top mercenaries like the Gardener, and getting on the GAG's good size was high on their priority list.

"Well met. Gardener. Fileran...." His menacing helmet looked towards the force user, and he sighed. "Well. As you may have heard, I am Tower, and this is Shadow." He looked towards the agent then, leaning forwards. "Don't bother asking, he's not a Jedi. Not am I, clearly, he continued, tapping the lightsaber on his belt.

"As it stands, Gardener, I am afraid my superiors will want to speak with you and your friends. I believe try may have already tried to contact you at some point? Still. Most likely, the Captain will attempt to bargain for you, so have no fear of staying on the ship for too long. I expect some form of deal will be worked out in short order."

It wasn't long after that the escape pods open, the 'prisoners' surrendered their weaponry, and they group was led towards the bridge. Tower wondered where the smuggler had come from, but he didn't expect things would go very well for the poor man.

"It won't hurt a bit, I assure you."

Tower early laughed at the lie, but the unease in the room was palpable until the sergeant returned with a site for sore eyes.

"Sorry sir. The Mandalorians sent someone to talk with you and retrieve their men-"

"Of course they did-" the man named Emperor started, with his helmet tucked under one arm. His face had a scar on the left cheek, which ran up to his eye wear it was hidden by a black eyepatch. The mans skin was dark, and his head was shaven. His one good eye made it look like he might've seen too many battles. The Sergeant frowned, then retreated back away where he had come from while Emperor approached. "-As if they wouldn't after you nearly blew our ship out of the sky. "

"Now then, Captain, if you don't mind, I'd like to be taking my men here and my new recruits-" Emperor motioned to the Gardener, Force user, and the two others,"- back to my ship so we can get back to the job the GAG has us on. And I'm sure Agent Zykov would like a ride as well, since we're headed to a station anyway." There didn't seem to e very much question, and Tower hoped his boss wasn't being to forward. Then again, Mandalorians had never been famous for their negotiating skills.

"Unless of course, you need us for something?" It also didn't seem much like a question, and Emperor was already motioning for the lot of them to move, seeming to assume that his will wouldn't be questioned. The Mandalorian had obviously been up to something, figuring out who Fileran was, approving the recruitment of otherwise unproven individuals. Something was off here, and there was definitely something Emperor was leaving unsaid. If Tower didn't know better, he might even think that his boss actually looked like he was in a hurry, which didn't make any sense at all.

Huggle's finger circled the eject button, he was unsure what his plan would be, would he be better off in galactic prison or dead? His mind raced with pros and cons, he looked over into UMU's cockpit who continued to wave his hands around and spit out "Roger, Roger!" in a tone as cheery as a robot could emit, huggle looked forward and noticed his ship was nearing the star destroyer quickly...he would have to make his decision fast.

Huggle smashed his head on the dash of his ship, and spoke with his head down. "How the hell have these Imperials not noticed the blinding red lights, perhaps they'll notice once i'm aboard there ship and they can here the sirens blare in their ears."

Huggle stared back down at the button, he rested his finger on it thinking 'Maybe it's time...maybe I don't deserve to continue existing...'

Violently Huggles ship lurched into the bay of the imperials and and struck the ground harshly, accidentally, Huggle slipped forward jamming his finger into the ejector button, he was quickly thrusted upwards with his chair, he had forgotten to fasten his seat-belt that morning and separated with his chair, thankfully the ejector had never worked at full potential - although Huggle had been meaning to fix it - it only managed to launch him several meters above the cockpit, Huggle was up into the air, and crashed back down within a matter of seconds, as he plotted face first to the ground his chair slowly made its decent to the floor assisted by a parachute.

UMU, however, climbed out of the cockpit, Saluted, and then said "Roger, Roger!"