Restoration Zone RZ-0031

[Christopher Michael]

*I listen to what the thug says and then say.*

"I'm most certainly not leaving. My companions and I have this thing against the harassment of unarmed villagers."

*I chuckle and say*

"Self-defense? Are you serious?"

*I step forward three steps and then say*

"It looks like the villagers are trying to make a living and you are not allowing them to live in peace. Why don't you leave and let them farm this land?"

[Ar'kikze S'ss'nixztoo]

*Ze stands just behind Christopher with the rest of the party. He nods his head and unnecessarily makes a possible confrontational statement*

"Yes, why don't you? Are your appendages incapable of extended periods of motorization which cause you to remain in this general vicinity? Because if so, then perhaps we can arrange for a hovercart to be shipped down from the station."

[Lara Rhys]

*Lara had remained silent after clearing her throat. She wasn't the strongest Jedi here, but she had a strong connection to the Force. She had been focusing on building it up silently the entire time she remained quiet. When she felt she had built it up enough, she touched Christopher's wrist gently.*

*At that same moment, she released the amount of Force she had built up to yank the guns away from the thugs hands and towards her.*

Now now. Let's talk about this like civilized beings.

*She touched Christopher's wrist again, letting him know not to draw any weapons on them. She hadn't touched her weapon the entire time.*

I think we can all agree that each individual wants to walk away from this alive and free. How about the two of you go back to Citadel Station and enjoy the cantina there? The villagers can continue about their daily lives, and we can continue on our way to what we were doing.

*Violence, to her, was never the first response. She preferred to avoid action if she could. Of course her encounter with Soln hadn't showed that. But perhaps she could redeem herself this time.*

You may not get exactly what you want, but you do retain your life and your freedom.

*Lara would have tried a mind trick as well. But it wasn't something she had a good grasp on and she preferred someone not be coerced into doing something, but chose to do it themselves. Even for thugs like these, that made her so sick for harrassing these innocent people, she wanted them to have their own freedom to choose.*

[Exchange Thug]

*The Thug leader smiles at Christopher*

"Yes, self-defense. Besides, if they wanted to live in peace, maybe they shouldn't have stolen from the company."

*ALL the thugs are completely confused by the taunt from the verpine, Ar'kikze S'ss'nixztoo. Only the leader is able to think clearly enough to respond*

"What?!? Whatever. We've got contracts for what we're doing."

*That's when Lara pulls the weapons and the three thugs trying to be macho, loose their rifles, the two thugs with the fruit are spun around and pulled off their feet as their weapons are attached to themselves; this also causes them to drop all their fruit. The leader is the only one who actively retains his weapon as its pulled, and drags him sliding towards Lara, the Miraluka. He stops nearly in the middle of the group and feels extremely exposed, scared, and frightened. This causes him to want to fight his way out of this situation. He takes time to build up the nerve however*

"We are talking about this like civilized beings, you Sith-witch!"

*The thugs, thinking they're sith scramble to get their weapons out with shaking hands, the three 'machos' grab their stun batons. One of the two fruit thieves is so scared that he ignores his rifle and stands up wielding two fruit, ready to hurl them. The leader charges his weapons and levels it from his hip at Christopher Michael whose the closest. All of them refrain from firing. The leader takes, one, small, slow step backwards from the group. Waiting for any threatening movement. The family also backs away, with the boy helping drag his father back. The mother just begins sobbing. She's heard the stories and thinks that even if they are unharmed, they'll watch the deaths of these previously despised and now worried for thugs*

[Lara Rhys]

Oh I see. So pointing weapons at people and beating them up is civilized, is it? Pointing a gun to their heads while you speak to us is not threatening at all, is it?

*Lara was getting irritated at their backwards logic. It was completely stupid on their part. But as irritating as it was, she retained her cool.*

Yet you call me the sith-witch for trying to disarm you so we can talk peacefully. For all I know, you would just shoot them in the head. You would hold them hostage and try to manipulate us. Now that is what a sith does. You do not see a single weapon in my hand. What you have witnessed is me disarming you.

*Lara looked over to the people that were previously harrassed by the thugs. They weren't worried about the thugs at all. They had just spent their time being beaten up and harrassed by the thugs. It was clear to these people that they were Jedi. Since they were wearing the traditional Jedi robes and the planet was accustom to seeing Jedi here as the people of Coruscant had been accustom to seeing Jedi on Coruscant.*

*What those people did was get away from those thugs before they could do more harm to them. Not worry for the lives of someone who just threatened their lives.*

Now. You can lower your weapons and leave peacefully. I suggest you atleast have the intention of hearing us out, instead of making such false accusations and attacking us. Because, you know, that's what civlized people do.

[Christopher Michael]

*I feel Lara's tap on my wrist which preceeds her pulling the weapons towards them, but since they are attached to some of the thugs, the gesture pulls them on the ground part of the way towards us. I keep my hand off of my weapon, and watch as the leader of the thugs speaks since clearly they are all worried. I am annoyed but I retain my composure when he refers to Lara as a Sith-witch.*

"Don't refer to her as a Sith-witch, and I don't have the intention to fight you. I want a peaceful end to this, and I don't care if you have contracts to treat the villagers this way. You will not treat them in such fashion."

*I listen to Lara further, and watch the Leader's reaction for a glimpse at what he will be doing.*

"You should lower your weapons and leave this area. Contract or no contract, you don't have the right to treat people like dirt."

[Exchange Thug]

*The mother hides her daughter from the scene in case violence did break out. She knew that the Jedi tried to end things peacefully, but things didn't always go that away. These thugs had been here unchallenged for too long to be so easily removed*

"I'll call her what I like when she uses that damned magic against us. We're here under legal orders to retrieve stolen property. Here!"

*The leader quickly pulls a datapad out of his uniform and tosses it at Christopher Michael. He's unafraid of the group's actions should they think its an attack. On the datapad is a Telosian Council's provincial decree that Czerka Corporation will not tolerate the theft of local resources by the residents of village 31, aka Anglebay and that attempts to recover stolen resources are deemed approved by the council. Recovery of the stolen resources is to be conducted by the Bumani Exchange Company over the next month. Then they are to police the town and local caverns from further theft of Czerka Corporation's resources*

"We was brought here cause these thieving fools steal from the people that brought them here! They're as likely to lie to your face as to say hello. So don't go telling me how to do my job! They had their chance to tell us who the thieves were. Now we're having to do house by house searches. So what if we take a little food or drink here and there. We wouldn't be here if they'd co-operated to begin with! And my men can't eat until we're paid. And we don't get paid, until we find whose theif!"

[Christopher Michael]

*Realizing it won't make sense to argue further about what to call Lara, I listen further, and then the Thug Leader takes out a datapad and he tosses it to me. I catch it and take a look at it. Looking up, I listen to what he has to say. After he's finished speaking his mind, I say.*

"I understand that you are here by legal decree, but what I don't get is that you're still using guns on the villagers. I don't agree with that. Also, taking a little food from those that already have little enough as it is isn't called for. You should have your own food stores for the time being until you are paid."

*After a moment so the Lead-Thug could think through what I said, I say further.*

"Was this regulation that was put in place enacted before this whole thing started or was it afterward? It could be that it wasn't illegal until Czerka saw what was happening and enacted a law and started to enforce it as though it had been in place for many many a year before it."

*I toss the datapad towards the Leader and then use the Force to levitate it to him.*

[Ar'kikze S'ss'nixztoo]

*Ze nods his head in agreement with Christopher*

"As the saying goes, two wrongs do not make a correct, my morally challenged friend. Simply because your company was the victim of theft does not give you the right to engage in the same illegal seizure of property. Unless of course it is these same pungent fruits and vegetables that were stolen from your company - although I find it unlikely that a company as expansive as Czerka would employ individuals of such an obvious high caliber to collect rotten fruit for a living. However your datapad does not go into detail as to what type of property was stolen from Czerka, making it impossible on a legal basis to verify what it is that you are supposed to be collecting from these villagers. Furthermore should you be here to indeed collect stolen fruit, I fail to see why weapons are needed. Do these particular fruits pose a significant security risk? Can they be used as weapons against you? Perhaps should they collide with your ocular organs, I suppose. Regardless the crime against Czerka does not give you the right to commit the crimes of harassment and reckless endangerment. Simply because you are here legally does not give you the authority to bypass other planetary regulations and laws."

[Exchange Thug]

*The thug listens to Christopher Michael. When he complains about the weapons, the thug is clearly irritated, and becomes more so due to the topic of provisions*

"You'd think we would, but we were only supplied with our weapons, and transport. Incentive for prompt resolution; that's what the receptionist told me."

*Then the Verpine rambles on about the fruit possibly being the stolen property. He looks at his doofus thug wielding the fruit as a weapon. He levels his rifle and fires a green bolt dead center into the thug's chest. The thug slumps to the ground. He's obviously snoring from his position*

"No. Stun rifles. Hurt like hell when you wake up though. And they've been stealing the crystals out of the local caves. The enforcement order is recent from Czerka, the Telosian policy is old. From back before the Sith attacked the Citadel. They didn't expect a few kids to fall into them and find them. But he did."

*The thug punctuates the remark with a red blaster bolt by the kid's feet. It seems this is one of the kids known to have fallen into the cave for some reason. The kid also seems like he has something to add*

[Jean Strife]

*Jean stands behind Chris without making a word. He looks over towards some of the scared families and remembers the scene of his family on Dantooine. He lets out a heavy sigh and refocuses on the Thugs.*

[Christopher Michael]

*I listen to the thugs, and see the kid has something to add, but I wait for his words. Keeping my hands away from my lightsaber, I say*

"So you only have stun weapons? That seems highly unlikely being hired hands and all."

*I wait to hear what the thugs have to say.*

[Exchange Thug]

*Emboldened by Christopher, the leader of the group of Jedi Apprentices, the kid speaks up*

"They arrested me on the station for solicitation and vagrancy cause I wasn't supposed to be able to leave the village, and I've seen them killing Cannocks! The liars!"

*The Lead Thugs sees that his veil of lies has been torn down. He primes a stun grenade and rolls it into the group of Jedi while then firing at Christopher Michael*

"Fall back to the Bar!"

*The two thugs with blasters also fire at the Jedi, though they forget to switch back from Stun rounds. The three thugs wielding Stun Batons pair up with the two with blasters while they slowly retreat to the center of the village to the Jedi group's right*

[Christopher Michael]

*I listen to the kid, and I nod to him, and then return my gaze to the thug.*

*I watch as the stun grenade is rolled into our group, and I turn around to Force push the grenade to the right of them. Dropping to the ground, I shield my eyes. I feel a few bolts just sizzle over my head. Opening my eyes, I grab my lightsaber and ignite it. Standing up, I deflect a bolt off to the side that was coming towards my upper torso.*

*As the thugs run backwards with their comrades to the bar, which was to our right, their aim gets worse due to back-pedaling, though it appears they still were using stun rounds. Crouching down, I say quickly to my group*

"If you don't feel comfortable helping attack, don't feel pressured. Find a safe area behind some boxes. All that want to help, please come with me."

*I turn back around with my lightsaber ignited, and look for where the thugs have gotten to. They were now moving towards the center of the village which was to our right. I run carefully towards where the path doglegs right. I hold my position on the edge. Closing my eyes, I feel around through the Force. I can feel the fear of the villagers, though don't let it anger me. Rather, I feel a sense of calm as I await my decision next.*

[Jean Strife]

*Jean sees the grenade and how Chris flings it into the air. Jean drops to the ground to avoid as much of the blast as possible. He notices Chris getting up with his lightsaber active and deflecting most of the bolts. Jean sees the kid that spoke up trapped in the middle of the rain of blaster fire. Jean runs over and tackles the kid out of the way of the blaster fire. Once the thugs disappear towards the bar Jean stands up.*

You'll be safe now. If your house is near get there and do not leave until this is resolved.

*The Kid nods and runs off to one of the nearby houses and closes the door. Jean then catches up to Chris.*

I don't have a lightsaber but I can do enough with the Force to cause issues for them. I'm training to be a Jedi Guardian anyway. It'd be out of character for me not to help out.

[Christopher Michael]

*I sense one of my group-members coming from behind, and turn. Seeing its Jean, I listen when he mentions that he wants to be a Jedi Guardian, though lacks a lightsaber. Remembering that I never put my training sabers away, I take the green practice (training saber) lightsaber from my belt, and hold it out to him.*

"This is one of my training sabers that I was given by Master Kavar or was it Master Ell." *Batting the idea away for the moment, I chuckle and say* "You can keep her, since she'll help you train in the basics. Be careful since its not as powerful as a full lightsaber, though while training, its good since that leads to bruises instead of loss of limbs."

*Speaking up so the rest of the group can hear*

"I have one more training saber. A purple one if any of you want to join but are uncertain because lack of a weapon."

*I wait for a moment or two to see if anyone else will join before I launch the offensive.*

[Ar'kikze S'ss'nixztoo]

*Ze can't seem to understand the circumstances here. As far as he understood the mercenaries were hired by Czerka, which was hired by the Telosian Government, which was constructed by the Telosian settlers. And yet these mercenaries claimed right to beat up on, and steal from their boss's boss's boss's boss? Sometimes the command and social structure of non-verpine sapient species confounded him. Just when he thinks he might have made a little bit of sense of this whole situation, it takes a turn for the worse. The mercenaries throw a grenade at them and then retreat. Much to Ze's horror, the grenade lands at his feet, but is then quickly flung away by some mystical invisible force. Perhaps THE Force!? Ze can only wonder, but he feels confident in assuming so. Unforutnately the Force doesn't stop stun blasts. As the mercenaries run away they shoot their blasters at the group of them. Christopher manages to bat a few away, but a stun blast hits Ze full on. Ze topples over, very much stunned*

*As he comes to, the thugs are all the way to the bar, and Christopher is handing a training saber to Jean Strife of Dantooine. Ze picks himself up and shakes off the drowsy feeling of just being stunned - it was most uncomfortable*

"Uggg... well that was a most unpleasant experience. I suggest we attempt not to repeat that specific series of events in the future.."

*Ze stares at the training saber being offered by Christopher*

"I would be doing the truth a dishonor by saying I would not be honored to wield such a noble yet confounding weapon. If you are willing to part with it, I would gladly accept."

[Christopher Michael]

*I chuckle at Ze's words, and toss it to him.*

"You can have it. More training sabers are available at the Academy. I just have the two, however."

*Turning back around with my ignited lightsaber, I sneak around the corner, and take a look what's going on. The city opens up in that direction and can see that thugs are positioned around one of the tents which must be the bar. Creeping up in that direction, I step on a rock and it gives way. This draws attention in my direction. Using my lightsaber, I deflect the bolts. This time, they aren't set to stun. One gets me in the shoulder (Health 9/10). I bat one each to the left and right.*

[Exchange Thug]

*The 11 Thugs are inside the bar tent where they've taken refuge. Hurl, the Thug leader, awakens his drunken men into a symbolic sense of action readiness. He also get blaster pistols for his three men without guns from their stash inside the bar. He then prepares the 5 men with him to try and flank Jedi from the right as they approach the Tent. One of his drunken, jumpy men hears the sound and fires off at the corner while the rest hear him shoot and join in*
[5 in the bar]

*Hurl, keeps his men quiet until they're a couple of buildings down from the bar. Then has them set up three on each side of the alley, waiting for the Jedi*
[Hurl + 5 on the right]

[Christopher Michael]

*I move close to the tents on the right-side, and the blaster-fire stops. We sneak further down, and then when we're five buildings down from the bar-tent, I raise my arm to signal a hold from my comrades behind me.*

*Closing my eyes, I extend myself out and feel a group on the left-side of the alley and a group on the right-side of the alley. I can't tell how many there are, but since I can feel presences are in those two places, it helps formulate a plan. Turning to my group which is behind me, I say*

"There are two groups in the alley-way. One on the right-side and one on the left. There may be more, but if there are, they're hiding out in one of the tents. Splitting up could be a good plan, but since I'm the experienced force-user, it might be better to stick together. We'll just move quickly. Use the lightsaber to deflect the bolts away as you would a bat. We'll head out if you all are ready."

*After a moment, with my lightsaber ignited, I sneak out from behind the tent and start walking carefully up the street.*

[Ar'kikze S'ss'nixztoo]

*Ze catches the training saber hilt with an exaggerated grabbing motion, and spins it through his three fingers, igniting it in the process. A purple blade erupts from the hilt and nearly clips Ze's other arm*

"Oh my! It seems that this weapon will be even more difficult to master than I originally anticipated."

*Taking greater care with the blade this time, he waves the glowing rod around in front of him, judging the weight and length of the blade. His verpine visual acuity allows him to judge to a millimeter the location of the blade tip. Combined with the knowledge of his own appendage proportions Ze is able to estimate the full range of defense allowed by the training saber - which was quite considerable. Ze goes through the motions, practicing the first twenty positions that he has determined to be the most applicable as basic defensive posturing. The purple blade swirls around him in a blinding light; never following the same path twice. He stops suddenly, allowing the blade to rest before him*

"There. That should be sufficient enough for this encounter."

*Ze follows after Christopher, the glowing purple blade at his side*

"What do we hope to accomplish here, Christopher Michael? Confronting such hostile individuals directly with force will only lead to a violent and bloody battle. And while, yes, it may have already become this, but must we really continue along the path they have chosen for us? Should we not continue seeking a diplomatic option? If violence is needed, I am prepared, however what will that give these villagers? More fear? More holes in their humble abodes which have already taken damage due to the ransacking we witnessed shortly upon arriving at this particular location? Surely there is some way to prevent continuing the destruction."

[Christopher Michael]

*I listen to Ze, and turn a bit towards him. I shake my head and say,*

"With a Jedi, its not all about showing one being stronger or what-not. I'm wanting to convince them to leave, without showing much or any bloodshed. Hope can be a sensitive area, but I really hope that it doesn't come to killing them. Diplomatic route is always better, but we might be past that."

*Turning back towards the pathway, I carefully make it up to the next tent and come to the edge of it.*

[Jean Strife]

*Jean stays behind Chris waiting for his mark. With the green saber humming low he stays alert. After Chris gets shot Jean looks over at Chris before he gets to ask if he is ok Chris shakes it off.*

Wow, they are a little jumpy.

*As Chris begins to move he follows behind.*

[Ar'kikze S'ss'nixztoo]

*Ze shakes his head in response to Christopher*

"We can never be past that."

[Exchange Thug]

*The thugs with Hurl wait. Very fidgety. Finally one of them spots Chris coming out and raises his rifle, but Hurl stops him*

"Wait for the rest to come out. Then fire."

*Then Jean comes out, and they hear the verpine. Hurl then yells to the group*

"Fire!"

*Six rapid series of Blaster Bolts shoot towards the three Jedi. Hurl also feels something isn't right. Jedi didn't usually fall for these kinds of tricks. It also about this time that the drunks in the bar tent start to sober up somewhat and begin to form their own plan of a full, fool-hearty, frontal assault and rush out into the street yelling at the top of their lungs, but too drunk to remember to fire their weapons. Besides, this always worked on other planets against the locals. Why not here too?*