Jedi Insurgency 323

Following Samantha's lead, Jay had come to the outskirts of an abandoned warehouse

Standing beneath the rain gutter of a deserted loading dock, a dark hood covered his pink hair, while a gif of himself played across the canal on a HoloAd. In the projection, his pink skin shone beneath stage lights, and fifty thousand people raised their hands in time with his latest single. The real Jay had a blaster in one hand, and a heavily beating heart in his chest. It was one thing to sing about revolution, but an entirely different matter to put his life on the line for those ideals. 

“Your face is on half the buildings in this district.” Samantha said. “If he has watchers, they know you’re here.”

“Jay O-Be walking around an abandoned warehouse by himself? No one would believe it.” Jay replied, using the banter to steady himself. 

Samantha checked the charge on her pistol. She had tried to kill him four nights earlier, and now she was about to repeat history…unless. 

“We can still leave.” Samantha pressed. “My former boss isn't that easy.” 

“No. I'm done running.” Jay replied, steadying his breathing. 

Jay looked toward the distant projection. Onstage, he could guide a stadium through a song with one raised finger. Now, with only a cloudy sky, and a single girl in attendance, he felt stage fright creeping along his shoulders. Every sudden pitter patter in a nearby puddle made him think someone with a vibroblade was coming to shank him. 

“No. There are children who I can still save from this rotten society, I can't back out now.” Jay whispered to himself, and slowly approached a ladder, nimbly climbing up the side of the warehouse. 

Samantha was quick behind him, and quietly opened up a window, then nimbly jumped down onto a pile of crates, showcasing her professional training. Jay, meanwhile, was surprisingly graceful, his untrained Force Sensitivity leaving him with plenty of room to maneuver. At the moment, Jay very much resembled a young Han Solo in his demeanor. 

Inside the warehouse, cargo towers rose through six floors of dim industrial light. Tracks crisscrossed the ceiling, carrying suspended loads between a loading bay, sorting platforms, and a row of freight lifts. Half the crates were marked as theater equipment, whilst mindless droids & other automatic systems worked tirelessly. 

A cargo claw rattled along its track overhead, about to pick up the crate they had landed on. Forced to jump off onto a relatively cluttered, and dimly lit aisle, a sudden, sharp cough drew their attention. 

“Our duet has arrived.” A man's voice said from the far end of the floor.

Overseer Har’ome-Smantha's direct superior-stepped onto a raised loading platform. His long coat hung open around a pair of blaster holsters and a vibroblade. Sporting long black hair, handsome asiatic features, and a trickster's grin, he peered at Jay with a knowing look. Two helpers occupied the stacks on either side of him, their pistols already aimed down the central aisle.

Jay took in the scene, preparing himself to move. One helper stood above a pallet lift to his left. The other had a clear shot from behind transparent packing sheeting on the right. An open freight container lay between Jay and the Overseer, but there were also a few crates near him, that he could dash to in a pinch. However, he preferred to get them talking, so he could slowly inch towards cover. 

“Is this the part where you tell me who paid you?” Jay asked.

“You want names?” Har’ome said. “Become a King representing the Greater Good, and we'll help you kill the one who called out this hit.” 

“You're really not afraid of the Jedi? What makes you so confident?” Jay taunted back, unwilling to play their games. He spoke such words to unsettle them, and seeing that the Overseer's face had warped into a grimace, he took this brief distraction to take a half step closer to cover. 

Har’ome’s expression cooled in an instant, and his confident smile returned. “Samantha. Step aside. You have done well to drag the target here without Jedi interference.” 

The assassin girl rolled her eyes, and didn't have any of the complications in her heart that Jay did, and directly shot at the Overseer. 

Har’ome was already moving to the side as her arm was raised. Advanced cybernetics, and experience made him more dangerous than the average contract killer. His return shot burst passed over her head as Jay dragged her into cover. Packing foam sprayed from several cases, spilling out all sorts of theater props.

Jay joined the firefight, depressing his trigger twice around the corner. The left helper ducked; the right one did not, because Jay’s first shot had struck a fastener above his head. A transparent curtain dropped across the killer's line of sight, effectively blinding him. Although he had trouble seeing Jay, that didn't mean he was stupid, and had just ducked down. 

Jay’s next bolt tore through the packaging material where the man’s chest had been a moment earlier, and he swore under his breath. 

Samantha then sent three shots toward the platform to keep Har’ome pinned down and sprinted for an open freight container. Jay followed close behind her. During the sprint, he had a feeling, and spun to the side, slamming to the floor a second later. A hail of red bolts soared overhead, and a black hole singed the spot where his foot was about to step. 

Scrambling forward on his belly, he was completely out in the open! Desperately shooting at a rack, the red bolt broke a lock. As a result, a bunch of giant rolling pins fell atop a holder over his head, just barely higher off the ground than him. He was within 3ft of being smooshed. As the giant rolling pins moved, blocking the enemy’s line of sight, Jay swiftly crawled along the floor with them. 

Having a feeling that an enemy was just above him and to the side, he planted his boots against a pallet jack, turned the rack sideways, and let it collide with a support pillar. Cases flew everywhere, and a carbonite projector struck a systems terminal responsible for the droids & other automated systems within the warehouse. 

Conveyors lurched into motion, moving at 4x speed, and crates began to travel between the combatants like freight trains. 

Jay rolled clear of the pins, and fired at the track release above the left helper. A suspended crate dropped, smashed against the upper stack, and brought six smaller ones tumbling down. The man leapt for a neighboring platform, temporarily making it to safety, but was forced to dance around under Jay's aim. 

Samantha, meanwhile, fired from the container. In response, Har’ome slammed a switch, and her hiding place became a liability as the door began to slide shut. She jumped through the narrowing opening with a curse, her coat catching on the edge. Jay put a bolt into the door motor, making it stall just enough for her to unfasten her coat, and avoid being crushed. 

Har’ome retreated along the upper walkway, shooting whenever either of them crossed an open lane. The right helper emerged from behind a group of crates, and used the warehouse noise to creep up on the heroes flank. 

Jay ducked a shot from the Overseer, and saw the reflection of his sneaky foe in a metal shipping crate. One emergency lamp lit the aisle from behind him. In that light, every move he made cast a shadow toward the man’s hiding place.

He shot out the lamp, and a brief darkness coated his form. Just at that moment, the assassin had lined up his sights, but the superstar was nowhere to be seen! 

Jay had flattened himself against a conveyor, and used a box as cover, blending in as a random object. When he reached the assassin-who was still standing there trying to formulate a plan-Jay shot him dead in the chest. 

His hand briefly trembled, yet Jay had no time to worry about what he had done. 

Courage, Jay. If you wish to learn from Revan, you must show courage. 

Meanwhile, the left helper had found her Samantha. He dropped from a stack of crates onto a moving conveyor behind her and seized her around the throat. Her pistol skidded away. Jay raised his own, but the belt carried them behind a succession of passing crates, and he didn't have a clear shot.

‘Trust in your feelings. Let go, Jay. Use the Force.’ A mysterious impulse entered his psyche. 

Just as Jay was second guessing himself, and couldn't actually see either of them, he resolutely took aim, and shot into the darkness. The dimly lit area became briefly bright due to his attack, illuminating the shocked expression of the dead assassin as he slumped to his death. 

Then Har’ome descended from the walkway, quiet as a Loth'Cat. Slamming his weapon downward at Jay's back, the young Zeltron felt it before it arrived, and tried to turn around to get a shot out. His gun clattered to the ground, cut in two. Scrambling backward, Jay ‘accidentally’ stumbled towards one of the dead guard's blades, but it was just out of reach. 

Just then, Samantha came at Har’ome from the front in an attempt to end it all. He effortlessly caught her wrist, twisted, and sent her into a stack of road cases. Jay seized a vibroblade from the other dead helper’s belt and swung with both hands. Har’ome met it with a level of strength that jolted Jay’s arms to the shoulders. They traded several moves, yet despite the impressive showing, Jay was clearly outclassed. 

“Fancy moves for a pretty boy.” The Overseer sneered 

Jay didn't have time to retort that he had learnt from his pirate uncle, too busy giving it his all. 

The young Zeltron pressed forward with a series of cuts, to which Har’ome opened his guard, let him overcommit, and then kicked him full on in the chest, sending him against the conveyor belt. Samantha rose once more, and weakly slashed at Har’ome’s back. He turned the blow aside, and drove his elbow into her face.

Bloody & out of breath, they took the Overseer on together. Twice they almost trapped him, but it was not enough. 

“You have a gift.” Har’ome told Jay, advancing. “A voice. A face. Luck. You never should have tried to upend the natural order.” 

Jay performed a poor parry, and caught a shallow cut across his ribs for his trouble. 

“That Jedi. Was Revan.” Jay mocked, and coughed up some blood as he tried to use psychological warfare to gain another advantage. 

Upon hearing the name, not only did Har’ome fail to pause, but struck Jay harder. The Zeltron gave ground around a toppled crate, dragging the Overseer away from Samantha. He wanted to buy her a few seconds to recover. Har’ome saw him glance at her and reversed direction with a sneer. 

Samantha was on one knee, trying to rise through labored breaths. When she saw the reflection of metal, she lifted her blade to meet it, but she was too late.

Jay desperately lunged forward. No one had ever died for him before, and today would be no different from every other day in the past. 

COME ONNN! I CAN MAKE IT.

He caught her collar with his right hand and pulled her backward as Har’ome’s weapon came down. Sighing in relief at saving the lady, his blood then ran cold as his other hand was lopped clean off. 

The Oberseer's vibroblade took his hand at the wrist.

Pain erased any thoughts of saving the day, and Jay crashed into Samantha, whilst blood rapidly pumped out of his stump onto the warehouse floor. 

Dim light coated the handsome cyborg's wickedly smiling face as he slowly approached.

“If only you had the vision of a true savior.” Har’ome sighed, slowly inching his blade closer to Jay's neck, then it shifted towards Samantha’s. “Such a pity that you fell for this waste. Oh well.” 

At that moment when the girl had blood drip from her neck, time seemed to slow for Jay. His heart became like a roar in his ears, like the roar of a 100,000 auditoriums filled with all his fans. When he performed for his people was when he was at his strongest. And right now, Samantha was HIS AUDIENCE MEMBER. 

At that moment, the pink skinned boy snapped his eyes open, and the air suddenly shifted, moving Har’ome back a step. 

The professional killer was at first confused, and glanced around the warehouse for any sight of Jedi, a hint of weariness entered his expression. 

“Where do you think you're looking? Afraid of Revan, huh? But I am right here. Your so-called Greater Good is nothing but Bantha Shit. After this, when you are sitting in your shitty nursing home, and you're sucking down on your porridge night after night for the rest of your life through a kriffing straw, YOU'LL THINK OF ME.”

Afterwards, the contract killer heavily slammed into a crate as Jay O-Be unleashed all of his pent up emotions in this life or death conflict. Har’ome's limbs twisted one by one, crunching into themselves at unnatural angles, until he was a barely breathing paraplegic, gasping for air. 

Witnessing the entire event from the shadows, a masked man smiled to himself. Another Jedi to add to my collection. 

~~~~~

AN: We're off Zeltros next chapter. I'll cook a little more, then we'll see how the Empire plans to deal with this wedding plot~

I've also written 3 more chapters for They're in the Trees, so look forward to it~