[AU] Without me you would be dead

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Поделиться125-03-2018 22:52:53

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Cassian Andor, Kay Tooesso

Время: 11 BBY

Место: in a galaxy far, far away

Описание: Cassian is old enough to start helping out on missions, but apparently he isn’t old enough to do it on his own.

the timeline

• 10.V — Cassian is assigned to be Kay’s trainee
• 11.V — Kay and Cassian get their first mission and discuss how to approach it. Sometime later that day they go to Uquine.
• 20.V — a woman comes to them with a job, “a simple fishing tool which can provide access to internal messages of any network it’s implemented into.” They suspect she’s from a cell. (And she is from a fake one.)
• 21.V — in the morning after finishing the job they talk about why Cassian things the Empire is bad. Cassian passes the finished job back to the woman. Kay tinkers with commlinks turning them into GPS, and in the evening they both go to a (rebel) talk at a cantina called Low Deck. There are people watching them at the cantina. Kay gets thoroughly drunk, and Cassian has to drag him home. The apartment didn’t get searched as Kay thought it would.
• 22.V — Kay tasks Cassian with asking around about the people who watched them in the cantina the day before. Cassian learns from his friends that there are two cells, one is fake, the other is not.
• 25.V — a twi’lek and a woman (from a real cell) ambush Kay and Cassian on their home from a grocery store. They demand explanation about Cassian asking around risky question a few days ago. Turns out, the rebels know the woman, Marani, too. Cassian and Kay learn that Marani was about to switch sides when she was killed—right after she collected their work. Kay is forced to show the twi’lek his slave marks so the rebels would let them both go. Finally, they exchange contacts.
• 26.V — Kay suddenly leaves Cassian alone and goes looking for the Imperial cell.
• 27.V — The next day the fake cell comes and searches the apartment while Cassian is out.
• 29.V — a man (Elek), saying he’s from a local rebel cell, comes to Cassian with a job, he wants a simple decoding program.
• 30.V — Not succeeding in his endeavour, Kay returns to the apartment where he left Cassian. They exchange the news. Cassian explains what he did while Kay was absent and they come to the conclusion that their landlord is a part of the game, possibly helping the fake cell. They contact the rebel cell and learn that they got searched by the fake cell. Kay infects the datadisk Cassian is going to give their new client (Elek) from the day before with a virus to learn their hiding spot.
• 31.V — Cassian goes to pass the datadisk to the client (Elek). His task is to get intel but instead he gets kidnapped by Elek. Mist Osh (the landlord) paralyzes and kidnaps Kay. Cassian escapes.
• 32.V — Together with local rebels Cassian frees Kay, they kill Elek and Mist. After welcoming local rebels to the bigger Rebellion, Cassian and Kay go back to the rebel base. In the evening Kay asks Draven to reassign him, but Draven refuses.
• 33.V — Kay low-key tortures Cassian to teach him a lesson. Under torture Cassian tells Kay that the name of the girl he likes is Thea. Kay suggests Cassian should go to therapy and work through his issues caused by being an orphan on Fest and then an orphan on the rebel base.
• 34–35.V + Fruitfulness Day + 1–6.VI — Kay is training Cassian at the rebel base.
• 7.VI — Kay and Cassian get a new mission. They are tasked with getting intel from one of the rebel informants at Coruscant.
• 10.VI — Kay and Cassian arrive to Coruscant.

[nick]Kay Tooesso[/nick][status]what are the odds[/status][icon]https://s7.postimg.cc/akubc07uz/Chiwetel_Ejiofor.jpg[/icon][LZ]<a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=75#p815">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a><div class="lz-hr"></div>Kay Tooesso, Alliance intelligence officer[/LZ]

Поделиться33116-03-2020 00:13:55

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

⠀⠀When Kay is alone, he takes the speeder to the side, parks it properly, gets off of it and just slumps against the wall. His body aches, it feels like, all over. Even the bits of him that he thought couldn’t ache, or he didn’t know he had. Kay closes his eyes and concentrates on breathing. Pain is here and it isn’t going away. It’s okay. He can deal with pain. He has to—for the kid. Frankly, Cassian is the only reason Kay is still functioning instead of just giving up. He’s stubborn, but not stubborn enough to outrun the entire Empire. All his planning, and calculating, and analyzing are for one thing, and one thing only. Ensuring the survival of this impossible teenager he shouldn’t care about yet still does, and very much so. Kay doesn’t care about the Rebellion, this isn’t his first mission for the Rebellion. But it is the first one for someone other than himself.

⠀⠀When breathing stops helping, and his mind starts wandering too often too far, Kay starts thinking through their entire situation. They were sent here to pick up the information. They succeeded at that, and the little datadisk is still with Kay. The Empire is on a manhunt for them. The informer they had here is quite possibly dead or detained. Kay isn’t sure what’s worse, it doesn’t matter. His emotional evaluation of the events doesn’t matter here. The Empire decided to move in on the Rebellion base, and they have four more days to get back to them. The Empire knows about him. The Empire will ensure either his capture or, more possibly, his elimination. The Empire will capture Cassian and torture him. The Rebellion, upon learning about him, will ensure his capture or, more possibly, his elimination. So, he has to get the information, something to bargain with. Cassian, unfortunately, isn’t enough—and Kay can’t bring himself to think of sentients like that. So they will storm the CIA tonight, get themselves some info. Get off Coruscant. Stars, they will never get off Coruscant. Could he convince Cassian to wait for him on the ship? No, he needs the kid. His kriffing left arm is killing him, it might be festering or something. Some gangs use special solutions on their vibroknives. Shak Chuk didn’t take a look at it, and he should’ve.

⠀⠀It doesn’t matter. Dying doesn’t matter, losing a limb doesn’t matter, nothing really matters at this point but Cassian’s escape and survival.

⠀⠀After half an hour Kay opens his eyes resurfacing from all the thinking and gets up. Cassian is nowhere to be found. They don’t have comms to talk, and Kay decides not to worry. He’s a smart kid. He’ll manage. Please, stars, let him manage. Kay can’t describe the sense of relief he feels upon seeing Cassian. It almost dials down the pain.

⠀⠀“Any luck?” Kay asks calmly, tiredly.

[nick]Kay Tooesso[/nick][status]what are the odds[/status][icon]https://s7.postimg.cc/akubc07uz/Chiwetel_Ejiofor.jpg[/icon][LZ] <center><a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=75#p815">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a> <img src="https://forumstatic.ru/files/0018/1a/00/71921.png"> Kay Tooesso, Alliance intelligence officer</center>[/LZ]

Поделиться33222-03-2020 15:22:49

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Cassian hesitates looking at Kay. By that time whatever Kay's doctor did to him worked. His arm barely bothers him. He thinks he'll have a scar from it, he still favors it a little, but overall he is fine. Kay is not. Cassian thought he has drunk his medicine while he had been in a holotheater. It's strange how Shak Chuk was able to help Cassian so well, but failed with Kay. If he drank his mixture, he should have been better. He is not. Did he drank it at all?

Cassian frowns but doesn't ask any question about it. They don't have enough time for it now. He only hopes they will be home before it would be too late.

"I've found us a nice CR90 corvette. Departure is in seven hours, and it's our only option. If we need more time for the CIA, change the plan. Or drop it all together. The base is warned, Seetha has sent a note in Shadownet to them. Isn't saving the whole base enough?"

It probably is not. Cassian sighs and lets it go. The sooner they break into the CIA, the sooner they will return, and then hide on the corvette, and then live and manage to stay unnoticed, and then leave it, and then find out where to find the Rebellion, and then, and then, and then...

Their plan is close to impossible, but they should make it.

"What is the plan then?" he asks in a resigned voice.

Поделиться33326-03-2020 15:01:39

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

⠀⠀“Nothing is enough, kiddo. I’m a traitor to them, traitors’ survival rate on either side isn’t too high. Even supposing that we get in and out with additional info to bargain with, I’m still facing an eighty percent chance of dying a premature death,” he probably shouldn’t say that yet he still does. Kay sighs and concentrates his mind. “We go to the CIA. I go through the main entrance as a visitor. You get in through the vents, quietly find a building escape plan, then find a room with cleaning droids and mess up their settings. In the chaos that ensues, you unlock one of the inner doors for me and get out through a backdoor. The rest of it is on me. Nothing too difficult. We reconvene in six hours at the corvette.”

⠀⠀Kay doesn’t stop to answer any questions. He knows the plan is borderline suicidal, not very well-thought-out, and overall weak. He could do better. Instead, Kay just gets on a speeder. The show must go on, and if the kid is smart enough to follow simple instructions, it will. For one of them, at least.

⠀⠀The CIA building is enormous. It goes a long way up, one of the tallest skyscrapers on the Coruscant, and it also goes a long way down. Kay doesn’t even know how many years of archival data there is, he just knows there is a lot. Billions of terabytes. It’s impossible to sort through them, so half of Kay’s plan relies on sheer luck, and he doesn’t like it. But then again, the plan isn’t here to be successful. It’s here to make Cassian get on the kriffing ship and get off Coruscant. Kay speeds up the speeder, trying not to think of the way the CIA skyscraper looms over them both.

Поделиться33407-04-2020 19:18:40

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Immediately Cassian sees the weak spot of the plan. Well, not to mention the whole plan in one big giant weak spot. Thousand things can go wrong. In hundred ways he can (but must not at all cost) fail. But the weak spot is the "reconvene" part. It means that for six hours Cassian won't know if Kay made it. If he is going to at least try to make it at all.

There's no way to know, only to trust. And although Kay told him before to not trust people like him, he still does. So he silently follows Kay. They don't have time for arguing or working on plan. What they have is six hours, and they better don't waste it. Nothing too difficult, Kay said. There 's nothing too difficult. Cassian starts to worry but quickly drops worrying. It won't help him. What will help is staying calm and collected. It's just a mission, nothing more. His second one, and he is not a boy who was eager to go on his very first mission anymore.

The CIA building is a strange one. It seems that they haven't driven here, but the building itself dragged them closer, and closer, until it's too late. For a moment before he goes to find the vent he looks at Kay, but he doesn't nod, he doesn't say anything. He wants to say something actually. He wants to threaten, to tell that he'll never forget Kay dying here or for getting caught. But he will. He want's to lie again, to tell that everything will be fine. But it won't.

So he just looks, remembering Kay, and then moves ahead, scraping everything but the mission off his mind.

Next he finds the vent.

Then the fun part will start.

Поделиться33512-04-2020 15:34:15

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

⠀⠀They don’t exchange any words before they begin, and somehow it doesn’t make it easier. For the first time in a very long while Kay realizes that he’s actually nervous. Maybe it’s the pain in the arm which he carefully covers, maybe it’s the sheer stupidity of the plan finally manifesting itself, maybe it’s Cassian’s skills that worry him. Does he know enough? Will he evade being caught? And then again, what will they do if they catch him? He’s just a boy. They’d think it’s some kind of a prank, mischief. CIA is big, and this is not the level at which there are top-secret documents. Some of them are much higher, and some of them are much, much lower. Will six hours be enough?

⠀⠀Kay walks inside as if he belongs here.

⠀⠀It’s a simple trick he learned a long time ago. Sentients tend to not pay attention to those who walk about confidently enough, it’s almost like a natural perception filter. Confidence acts as a cloak, and Kay dons it without even thinking. Nothing in him looks like he can be here yet he is, and he is sure of himself the way only a seasoned Imperial officer would be. He walks past the desk to the reading hall, filled with datapads. The procedure is simple enough: usually, a visitor would ask for a document and then wait here until the archive droid gets it. If there is any problem then the droid would ask a person to come around and help resolve it. Some files it’s possible to access straight from the reading hall, a huge room that can easily shelter hundreds of people yet almost always remains eerily empty. It’s empty now, too, and Kay has never been quite so thankful that regular Imperials neglect their archives the way they do.

⠀⠀There are stormtroopers guarding the corners of the hall, though. They, too, pay Kay no attention.

⠀⠀He quickly settles next to one of the datapads, not too far from a side door leading somewhere inside the archive. Initially, Kay wanted to impersonate one of the staff members, but that would’ve taken too much time. He just hopes Cassian can pull off the trick with the cleaning droids. Meanwhile, Kay has to check what’s on the datadisc that Seetha gave them. It would be nice to have a second one to copy it to, but alas, he doesn’t. So he will just have to remember whatever it is that was so important for them to go all the way to Coruscant to get in person.

⠀⠀It turns out there is only one file on the datadisc, and Kay grunts, looking at it. A string of numbers in its name tells him nothing, and he heavily suspects that whatever it is, it’s going to be guarded with a password Seetha would tell to the base. Just a regular precaution for any information that has to travel with someone physically. To his surprise, the file opens without requiring a password. Kay stares at it incredulously. Something inside him grows very still and cold.

Поделиться33630-04-2020 20:12:28

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Cassian is lost, at first. He gets out of the vent not very gracefully, he almost falls and for a moment he freezes startled by all the noise he has made. But there's no one. Impossibly white corridors remain empty and silent. So he proceeds with his part of the mission.

Finding cleaning droids is not that easy as he imagined. There's no arrows pointing at the door he needs, and all doors look just the same. He is afraid he might walk right into the security room. Cassian doubts something will happen to him. He is much better now, he would just play a lost mischievous teenager, Kay said he does it well. But Kay not knowing that everything went south will stay then in a place where someone can and probably will recognize him at some point.

He wanders corridors for an eternity which objectively translates into twelve minutes. Then Cassian finds a room that he needs and he is right about it. There are eight droids, and some on them are charging. He decides not to bother them. He doesn't have that much time anyway. he must choose the fastest and the most effective options available. Four droids he is going to reprogram — well, to see is he can change anything in their programs at all — are all different, so when a solution to stop one of them is found, it can't be repeated for the rest.

To his surprise he can change droids code. He quickly looks through options and decides it has to be something a bit dangerous but not dangerous enough for stormtroopers to start shooting at once. Cassian changes parameters of what is considered to be trash and adds there any papers, any datadiscs or datachips. Anything that remotely looks like an intel will do. Kay would have to hurry to grab his data. But then again. They will be so concerned with saving any data at all they wouldn't pay attention who exactly is saving it.

When he is done his forehead is covered with beads of sweat. It's not hot here, it must be fear but Cassian doesn't let it shake his hands or distract him. His fear exists and it's fine but he doesn't have to act as his fear dictates. Not now, not on mission, not when he is breaking droids after breaking in CIA. When he is done he leaves the door open and watches with proud at droids who is going to create a mess.

Everything goes well up to the point when he has to leave. He does leave, well, almost. This time there is a stormtrooper right outside, so Cassian stays in the vent. He'll just wait for a bit. Soon there will be too messy inside for someone to just stay blocking his way out.

Поделиться33707-05-2020 18:27:30

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

The worst thing is, he can’t just outright deny it. Say it’s impossible, say that the Empire would never. Because it would. It would the first moment it gets, and by the looks of it, the moment was quite a while ago. Stars, how much money did it cost? How did they manage to maintain complete secrecy? Who was at the helm of the project? Although that would be a silly question—Kay knew exactly the person whose devious mind could cook up something like this. He quickly turns the datapad off and just sits there for a second, two, half a minute.

Turns out they don’t need anything from the CIA.

Kay can very well bargain his way out of anything the Rebellion would like to do with him with this information. They needed to warn them before, but now that he looked at the file, he thinks they needed to warn them on the base yesterday. The day before yesterday. Now it all makes complete sense. Why the Empire waited for so long, why they decided to act now, why they agreed to Kay’s little silly plan.

He killed so many people, he shouldn’t be appalled by something like this.

Yet he is, because the sheer scale of this thing is just too much, even for him.

Kay realizes he spent the last five minutes staring at the switched-off datapad. He pockets the datadisc and gets up calmly. Walking away from the reading hall and outside the CIA building in a slow and collected manner is one of the toughest things he had to do in his life. Kay forgets everything—the pain in his arm, the havoc that the droids are likely to cause if Cassian is successful, he almost forgets about Cassian himself.

Outside it’s the same Coruscant. Cars are going back and forth, never-ending strings of front- and backlights in the sky looking almost like festive garlands. Civilians walking everywhere, stormtroopers patrolling the sidewalks lazily. Buildings with their windows lit up, and hoverboards with posters and ads, and all of it looking so ordinary. Nobody knows. It’s an ecumenopolis with several billion sentients, and none of them know. Well. Except for the Emperor. Kay leans on the rails of the sidewalk not far from the main entrance to the CIA and for several minutes he just can’t stop looking at the city going up and down in every direction, vast, never-ending, never sleeping, never stopping.

Did Seetha know? Did she look at the file? Was that it, was that the reason—among many others—why she resented giving it to him yet proceeded anyway?

Kay turns and looks at the enormous CIA building. He has to fetch Cassian right now, and they both need to get to the Rebellion as quickly as possible.

Поделиться33808-05-2020 19:13:23

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]He waits a bit, but then the stormtrooper quickly retreats as if something urgent and important happened. Cassian smiles. He wonders what it might possibly be.

He smiles again and climbs out. He knows he did well and hopes it will buy Kay some time. He hopes Kay would be there to tell him everything about it. But he can't be sure about this one and him smile fades. Six more hours — it's more like five and a half now — and he will know. Everything would be fine. Everything...

Cassian stops rapidly when he sees Kay. He frowns and then quickly comes to the man.

"What have happened? Is pain too sharp? Did I mess everything up? Are you that fast?"

He tries to keep his voice down. Whatever happened they still don't need any extra attention. Especially so close to the CIA building.

"Why are you here?"

Поделиться33908-05-2020 21:39:12

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Kay turns his head and looks at a teenager, for a split second not really recognizing him or knowing what the kid is talking about. Then he blinks, and it’s Cassian next to him. Cassian is well and alive, and out of the CIA building. Kay just stares at him for the longest few seconds before his mind finally catches up to what Cassian was asking. “We have to go,” is all he says.

Instead of going, Kay squeezes the kid’s shoulder, his hand warm and heavy.

He doesn’t show fear, but he clearly has something on his mind. An all-consuming thought he can’t let go of. It makes Kay slower than usual as if he’s a droid with a processor overloaded with tasks. He feels like a droid too. Like a mindless drone, to be precise. As if someone set him on autopilot, he goes back to his speeder, and all the way to the spaceport he’s silent and seemingly concentrated on the road. He isn’t, of course, he’s concentrated on calculating how much time might The Thing need to get to the rebel base. Does it even need to get there? Can The Thing shoot at it across half the galaxy? But no, no. There are stars, and planets, and trade routes in between, one can’t simply shoot a big gun across the Empire. Kay hopes they can’t. They won’t.

They will—they will—they will, beats his stupid heart.

Thankfully, he never listened to his heart much.

When they come closer to the spaceport, Kay nods to Cassian and parks his speeder. The sidewalk here is wide and thus relatively free. The ads from the nearby building are glowing with all shades of red. It makes Kay’s face look urgent—or maybe it’s not just the light from the ads. His eyes stay dark, calm.

“Where is that ship you spotted for us? Scratch secrecy, we need to get back to the rebel base as quickly as possible. Fight our way out long enough to send a signal and die, if need be.”

Kay says it calmly yet there is still a hint of this slowness, thoughtfulness in his every move, and every word, and every glance. He doesn’t look at Cassian, only ahead, where the spaceport lies. Up above it is a huge circular hole leading to yet higher levels of Coruscant, there are maybe one or two above, and then the sky, and then space, freedom, possibly their death, what a spectacular few days Kay is having. A part of him hates himself for the choices he makes here, now, with Cassian and all. Maybe he should stay. Maybe he will distract the Empire long enough it’ll let Cassian slip right through its fingers and out of its heart.

But then Kay looks at the kid and knows—Cassian would never concede to it. It’s pointless to waste precious time arguing.

[nick]Kay Tooesso[/nick][status]what are the odds[/status][icon]https://s7.postimg.cc/akubc07uz/Chiwetel_Ejiofor.jpg[/icon][LZ]<center><a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=75#p815">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a> <img src="https://forumstatic.ru/files/0018/1a/00/71921.png"> Kay Tooesso, Alliance intelligence officer</center>[/LZ]

Поделиться34008-05-2020 22:14:52

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Kay acts strangely, talks strangely. Everything is strange and Cassian is dying to know about the news that makes Kay to look so uncanny uncharacteristically worried and alive. He doesn't ask. It must be something too important to ask question right now. He'll have time for that later.

But it's something important. Something big. Something so big it's not about being careful anymore. Something too big to be about bargaining. That means Kay must still be in danger. What scares Cassian more, that might mean they all are in danger.

"What happened?"

He asks, then breezes out and shakes his head. Too important to ask questions he reminds himself. He just has to trust Kay.

"I'll show you."

A Corellian corvette is still on its plase. CR90 model, Cassian likes it because here on Coruscant it reminds him of home. They have plenty of them, though Alderaanians tend to like them the most, it's non-combatness, it's speed and the way it reminds them of different, Senat times. Cassian likes to think about it now. It's much easier than thinking about possibility of death Kay is probably fine with.

Something that big.

"It was empty," he says. He is sure it is still very empty, almost asking to be stolen and drive as fast as they can. "What do you need me to do to help?"

Поделиться34109-05-2020 11:30:46

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Kay ignores the question. What happened doesn’t really matter. He doesn’t plan on hiding the truth from the kid yet telling him would be wasting their time now. Although, almost everything feels like a waste of time. Thankfully, Cassian doesn’t press him on it and rather wisely decides to proceed to show him the ship he picked. It’s a Corellian corvette, by the looks of it—belonging to some lesser diplomatic party. It would be easy to slip away in something like this if they kept to their earlier plan. Diplomatic vessels have a sort of immunity even in the Empire. At least, they do, until they don’t, but there’s nothing conspicuous about it, nothing that would attract attention. Do they have five hours to spare? Kay considers it for a moment.

A ship like that normally requires a crew of fifty sentients. Not all of them are piloting, though. Some of them would be manning the sparse guns, some would be keeping an eye on the engine, some would be navigators—none of those are really essential for taking off. There is also autopilot, but autopilots aren’t used at taking off. Only in flight. Cassian isn’t very knowledgeable in piloting, Kay himself isn’t a professional pilot either. Can they pull it off and not die in the process? Or—worse—get caught by the Empire?

Kay turns to Cassian.

“Do you know who this ship belongs to? Find out as much about it as you can, as quickly, as you can, and as discreetly.”

The corner they are standing at shields them from any curious eyes, but one can’t steal an entire corvette by hiding in the shadows. Kay will need a blaster. Which means, he needs a couple of stormtroopers.

“Meet me next to the corvette in half a standard hour. Whatever happens next, do not resist. Understood?” Kay falls silent for a second, then adds, “I’ll explain everything once we’re on our way.” It should be enough for now.

Поделиться34209-05-2020 19:09:38

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]He still doesn't understand, but now at least he has something to do. Cassian frowns again — Kay's commands are vague and his promise to explain is unconvincing — yet he nods, "Understood."

He has half an hour, it's not much time so it can't be wasted. He leaves Kay and goes to a cashier's counter. It was empty before, it better be empty now. It is a sheer luck, but Cassian isn't surprised, not is he pleased. Half an hour is a small period of time, there's no room for emotions. There's no room for a lack of luck too.

He looks around and then picks into a ships record. There's no any corvettes. He tries again, and again. He tries a name of the model, anything "Corellian" — there's nothing. Every time he looks around one more time, as if failed search might inform someone that he is here and he must be contained. Cassian remembers a parking space and it's number. He does, and system — finally — responds. With a wrong ship, a small shuttle, that doesn't make any sense, but apparently uses the same parking space for the last four years.

It must be a mistake, but it can't be. He wants to know more but he can't, his time is almost up, so all Cassian manages to find is a name of the owner "Xir Zo". It may not be real, but at least it is something. At least it helped not to think about resisting part. What did Kay mean?

He'll know soon, think Cassian and speeds up.

Поделиться34310-05-2020 18:34:34

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Cassian walks off, and Kay waits half a minute before going in a different direction. The spaceport is vast and rather well-equipped, and the level it’s at is high enough for Imperial stormtroopers to patrol it every so often. There aren’t too many of them, though. On his five-minute-long walk Kay counts six, two of which stand guard next to the bank machine and look rather lonely. He is about to change that.

It all goes rather well and smooth. Kay manages to convince both stormtroopers to leave their post to put an end to an imaginary squabble not far from the bank machines. He even manages to outwit them and overpower both, at least long enough to paralyze them. It’s the last bit of his little plan that goes kind of sideways. Kay is dragging the second stormtrooper to the staff corridor nearby when a little astromech droid spots him and stops to beep at him. When Kay doesn’t respond, deciding it’s better to just keep doing what he’s doing, the droid rolls closer and beeps at him again.

By the looks of it, the droid isn’t one of the locals. Its panels are old and dirty, even though overall it’s rather clean. The model is nothing fancy, such droids can be sold somewhere in the Outer Rim. It’s very unfortunate it got too curious because now there is no other choice but to destroy it.

Kay opens the door and drags the body over the threshold, hoping the droid would be curious enough to follow—and luckily it is. Kay shoots it with a blaster. Whoever the owner is, he hopes they won’t notice their droid missing for another couple of hours. He hides the second body in the same wall closet, then dresses in the stormtrooper’s armor and grabs a blaster. He wishes he could grab the second one but that would be too noticeable. Stormtroopers typically don’t carry two blasters at the same time.

Once he’s done, Kay makes sure to hide the droid as best as he can too, and gets out. When the comm in his helmet suddenly comes alive with the dispatcher’s voice, he answers without missing a beat. Apparently, he’s convincing enough for the Imperial to trust him, and the vocoder is crappy enough to maul his voice to the point of it being vaguely resembling that of the actual stormtrooper whose armor he stole. The commlink goes quiet again. Kay continues on his way back to the corvette.

It is still there, and in front of it is Cassian. Kay walks right towards him, impeccably copying a local stormtroopers‘ way of walking like they own the place.

“You there,” he calls while still a few steps away from Cassian. “Show me some ID.” Kay stops in front of the kid and looks down at him. Be smart, kiddo. “Is this your ship?”

Поделиться34410-05-2020 21:40:48

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]He must run. Right now, as fast as he can. But Cassian just stands and waits. Kay must be here. He is not but he might be any moment now and he must know that here's a stormptrooper. So he doesn't run. Instead he spends time he still has before he will be detained to cover panic in his eyes with something else. Anything else.

He is not detained. Not right now. Cassian is looking at the stormtrooper. Kay said to not resist. Did he know about it? Did he plan it? Is it him? No, it's not possible. Kay was hurt and he had the same half an hour. No way he could find a stormtrooper armor just laying and waiting to be worn by anybody.

Cassian has an ID. He calms down and decides he will cover his panic with boredom and arrogance. He'll pretend he is a teenager one more time.

"Some ID like any ID? Any at all?"

But even Aach Tolen isn't stupid enough to disobey stormtroopers, so Cassian reaches for his fake ID careful enough to not disturb his arm. It's much better now, he feels good, but a smallest wince might give him away.

"And yeah, it's mine. Well, almost," it's too easy to check, and if a vessel isn't his, it's plausible he knows nothing about its shady footprint. "It will be mine, right now it's my father's business partner's and my mentor's. Why? Is there any problems?"

Поделиться34511-05-2020 21:47:28

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

The kid is smart and doesn’t bolt. If he bolted, Kay doesn’t think he would have enough strength left in him to give a chase. He emptied the little bottle from Shak Chuck before going after the stormtroopers, but its effect is not going to last for too long. Kay prefers not to think of side-effects at the moment, too. He grabs the ID from Cassian and studies it for a few seconds before giving the corvette another look.

“Yes. Now move inside, and don’t do anything funny.”

Kay pockets the ID and nods towards the ramp, carefully falls behind Cassian, his blaster ready. It doesn’t look like there are many sentients around the ship, so either they must all be inside, or at least the ones left behind to guard the ship, or there is nobody here. Either way, Kay isn’t going to change his plan. The stormtrooper’s armor doesn’t fit him too well since he’s bigger than the original owner, and he can’t wait to get out of it. But not yet.

The ship is quiet, nobody is guarding the ramp for sure. Kay stops the moment he steps off the ramp inside. “Your father a diplomat?” he turns his head to Cassian. “How many people you have with you aboard the ship?”

Passenger ships typically transfer a passenger manifest to the spaceport dispatcher. A diplomatic one might do that too, but then again, they might not. Personal ships are an entirely different matter.

Поделиться34612-05-2020 13:36:38

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]He asks questions Cassian would have been able to answer if he had found anything about the corvette. Just like Kay has asked him. Once again he wonders if Kay planned all of this. Once again he puts the thought aside and walks inside with the stormtrooper.

There might be people inside, what he is going to tell then? Cassian decides to not worry too early. He'll figure it out. He will say he was lost and mistook one ship for another. Or he'll pretend he is a son of the mysterious Xir Zo. Or something else. He will lie his way out of it.

There's no one, but perhaps he just doesn't see crew members and they haven't heard them entering. Therefore his lie must be careful, vague and fitting.

"How should I know? I don't count staff, I have more fun things to do. They are staff, who cares."

It's good. It's arrogant and safe. He won't be caught lying when or if the stormtrooper will find a staff list.

"My father is a merchant."

Cassian hesitates if he should try to scare the stormtrooper with his imaginary father. But he said there is a problem. That means a line he should be careful not to cross is closer than it might be.

"There shouldn't be any problems," he says more confident. This Cassian believes himself. No one can miss a corvette. The reason he is here but not in spaceport papers means someone actively closed their eyes to not see it. "Any problems at all."

Поделиться34712-05-2020 23:09:15

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Cassian pretends to be an arrogant kid further, and Kay can’t help but smirk inside his helmet. The kid is even convincing, at least, if Kay was a regular stormtrooper, he’d be sort of fooled—or at least fooled long enough until something would inevitably distract him from interrogating a minor.

“Then there are about to be. Lead the way to the bridge.”

He almost adds his usual “kiddo” but changes his mind at the last moment. Someone can still be here, watching them from cover. He shouldn’t blow his stormtrooper persona just yet, in case there’s someone here. Although by the way of Cassian’s answers, Kay judges that this ship isn’t what it seems—or Cassian tells him—to be. It’s not a merchant’s ship. It must be something else, and the fact that there is still no one showing up to tell them to back the kriff off the corvette worries him.

Kay stops in the doorframe of the bridge and looks around. It worries him even more when they find that it’s empty.

Where is everyone?

Do people ever get this stupidly lucky or is he missing something? He must be. There is no way they just stumbled upon the only empty corvette at this spaceport, and there is no one to resist them, no one to tell on them, no one to do anything about them leaving this planet.

But then again, a part of his plan was to use someone else’s credentials to leave Coruscant. Now it goes out of the window because the bridge is empty.

“Now, this is peculiar, kiddo,” says Kay and lifts up his helmet. There is no sense in pretending now.

Поделиться34813-05-2020 13:40:13

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Cassian expects the stormtrooper to be a problem, an ominous obstacle on their way out. He accepts the stormtrooper may be carefully manipulated by Kay, but at this point he does not expect him to be Kay. For a moment Cassia just stares at him. Then he remembers they don't have much time and shakes off all his questions — where did he find an armor? why didn't he let him know who he really is? why does he look better? how was he able to pull it off so fast? — and focuses on Kay's words.

"It gets even stranger," he says, "it's a shuttle according to papers. Just a shuttle. you know, no mothership listed, nothing. There's a name of the owner, but I doubt it's real."

Cassian looks around. The corvette is going to leave just in a few hours, but there's no one here. Whatever is going on, it's strange and probably dangerous. But at the same time the Empire — or some imps who control the spaceport at least — knows about it and willingly closes it's eyes. It can work. It can help him.

"I say we leave right now and they probably just let us out not knowing who we really are. When the real crew comes, we will be far away, half way back home. Half way back base," Cassian corrects himself. Not that it is important right now. But it is.

Поделиться34917-05-2020 13:37:26

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Cassian gapes at him. Kay sets his helmet in one of the seats on the bridge and walks around, letting the kid come back to the reality in his own time. By the looks of the panel, no one was around for quite a while—the dust had time to settle, a thin layer of it everywhere. Did the crew abandon the ship altogether? Did they have to leave? Were they arrested somewhere in the city? Or killed? Who did this ship belong to? So many questions, so little answers, and Kay doesn’t like it. He prefers to know whose ships he’s stealing, otherwise, it might come up as sudden trouble somewhere down the line. But then again, he remembers, he might not really have down the line. There is no guarantee that the rebels won’t take the info and end him regardless of its value. He would do that. He would take it and kill the messenger who was a traitor all this time. Not out of spite, but because the one who betrayed can’t ever be trusted again—it’s safer to not have traitors amongst your ranks if you’re a teeny tiny Rebellion in the big and powerful Empire.

“Find a way to start the ship. Look over there as a start,” Kay points at one of the panels. “I’ll go check the engine. If the ship is listed the way you say it is, we are stealing from someone we might not want to steal from in a more, ah, ordinary circumstances.”

Kay dons his helmet once again, nods to Cassian so the kid sets to work, and walks off the bridge. He doesn’t go to the engine bay straight away, instead, he briefly looks into one of the other sections, the one where he might find something personal, but there’s nothing that would tell him anything. No posters, no datapads, no clothes, no nothing. The bunks look neat, but that is all. Kay frowns and keeps going until he reaches the cargo bay—that one contains some boxes he’s unable to open. All of them look fancy and are locked with a security code. Why would anyone leave these here? Is someone else supposed to pick these up? What’s inside? Kay thinks of spice, then of disruptor weaponry, then of sentient slaves. The box looks big enough to fit some unlucky sentient species from Outer Rim.

Kay hesitates for a moment but finally decides it is not his main concern at the moment. He trots to the engine bay and studies the ship’s core there, careful not to touch anything that looks like it might do something to it. His helmet is helping him to concentrate his sight and pluck the most important things out of his surroundings. Dangerously close to the core there is a little device that Kay’s helmet detects as a self-made explosive. Well, clever. It must be a trade ship then, but not the merchant kind. Rather, the kind which allows criminal cartels to exchange goods without ever meeting. Are they stealing one of Black Sun’s ships? Or Crimson Dawn’s?

He can think about it later. Kay feels his strength seeping out of him so he approaches the device and uses the helmet’s laconic instructions on how to dismantle it. Thankfully, it doesn’t go off. Kay makes sure it is fully disabled, then fishes out a little chip which looks like it might send or receive some kind of a signal and makes sure to thoroughly destroy it before picking everything else up and going back to the bridge.

Поделиться35022-05-2020 18:16:18

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Cassian thinks he'll start the engines in no time. He can pilot. He did it, and he was good — well, not good maybe but at least he didn't kill them in the process — with hyperjumping. The panels of the corvette thinks the opposite. Cassian stays alone.

Then he makes himself to calm down again. He is tired and nervous and scared — both for himself and for Kay. And for the base. The last thing he needs is panic devouring him. So Cassian puts it aside. It's surprisingly easy although he is not sure why is it. Is it Kay's influence, is it the result of him visiting the base medic, is he just too tired for active worrying.

Either way Cassian looks at panels until he starts to notice similar buttons, tumblers, knobs and indicators. He keeps in mind someone might come. He'll say he is obeying a stormtroopers order, it's not a problem. It won't be a problem. It shouldn't be. He decides what and when he is going to do. The starting ship is easy. But he has to be fast and neat so no one can think that the corvette is shaky in it's ascending, that something is wrong.

He's not that sure about connection though.

When Kay is back, Cassian says, "I'm ready. I can start it, everything will be fine."

He knows nothing about that, but it doesn't really matter. His lie won't hurt anyone and he — and Kay too — can use a little encouragement right now.

"Should we try to contact the base? To let ours know what is going on. I'd like to know what is going on too."

Поделиться35123-05-2020 22:51:37

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Kay doesn’t like the reassurance in Cassian’s voice but figures it’s easier to just nod. So he nods and goes to one of the stations to help Cassian out. The helmet he sets aside, the same as he did previously, on one of the seats.

“Not yet,” he says calmly, mechanically. “Unless you want our transmission to get intercepted by the Empire. I take it you don’t,” Kay doesn’t leave any pause for Cassian to share his opinion, “so we’re taking off first. Once we’re in hyperspace, we can contact the base.”

Boy does he not look forward to this call.

It doesn’t matter. Kay put his job before himself his entire life—first as a slave, then as an officer, and now, as whatever he ended up being, he kind of unsure as of late. The corvette takes off a little shaky, but it ascends quickly and it’s not like anyone’s watching. Kay talks to the dispatcher in his special voice that makes people want to seize talking to him as quickly as possible, and suddenly Coruscant is well below them and keeps getting further. Until the last moment Kay is waiting that something will go wrong.

But nothing does.

The space around them is vast and dark and cold, and it feels like freedom.

Only then Kay leans back in his seat and gives a long exhale, tired. No, more than tired—exhausted, utterly spent. He can feel his eyes becoming droopy, the eyelids just randomly sliding down, and the pain in his arm returns with a jolt that makes him cringe. At least it jerks him back to reality—he promised Cassian some answers.

“There are some boxes in the cargo bay. We might want to check those when we’re in hyperspace, before we land anywhere. Wouldn’t be wise to bring something too dangerous back to the base,” Kay pushes the words out of himself, turns his head to look at Cassian. ”That’s not what you were asking about, I know.”

Instead of continuing, Kay starts getting out of his borrowed stormtrooper’s armor. Once he’s in his own black clothes again, and the armor lies at his feet in an unsightly pile, looking like some kind of peculiar rubbish, Kay exhales again. The pain in his arm pulsates—not good. Not good at all. It suddenly makes him chuckle, so he does, not having any will left in him to resist the urge. He might be facing death, and yet here he is, worrying about his stupid arm.

They will kill you, he thinks. They will kill you, and there is nothing that the kid can do about it.

You wish he could, though. He’s a good kid.

“Imagine a moon. Like Jedha or Yavin-4. Do you picture it in your head? The size of it?” Kay looks forward, at the control panel, and steadily lines the corvette up to the hyperspace. “Now imagine it was a weapon.” The stars blink so brightly right before the corvette jumps, and then it’s just an endless corridor of white and black of hyperspace in front of them. “Imagine that this weapon is the best, most complicated, most advanced invention of the best scientists and engineers in the galaxy. And it belongs to the Empire.”

Поделиться35230-05-2020 17:18:13

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]It's like he is powering down. Like every piece of stormtrooper armor is stripping him of remains of strength and life. Cassian patiently waits. Waiting is surprisingly easy now. After all they've beaten the odds and are returning back on a base. They will not die on Coruscant, and the only thing that is important now is to make sure Kay won't die after they land. Or during the flight.

But then Kay is finally answering him. And everything goes blinding white. It's like what he says is so impossible that Cassian's brain fails to process it. A weapon as big as a moon. An Imperial weapon — that big, that good — is hard to imagine, yet is easy to understand. It means they are going to lose. It means not only Kay but everyone may face a death right now.

Cassian stays silent for some time. They can't go any faster. They are heading home. Seetha had to tell them. There must be a way to outsmart, outrun, outanything the Empire and it's killer moon. There must be the way.

There must be.

"I'll go and check boxes," Cassian says, because he doesn't know what else to say, except of asking Kay not to die.

He stands up but doesn't move.

"Do we have any proof? To show them if they won't believe you. To make them believe you've returned to help?"

Поделиться35309-07-2020 14:27:37

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Cassian doesn’t really answer. Going to check the boxes doesn’t sound like a proper answer to the news of a superweapon that is destined to doom them all. There will be fire and destruction, and deaths, lots of deaths. Whole worlds dying in a blink of an eye just because some Imperial shithead decides so. Their struggle, the Rebellion, all of it seems pointless. Not that Kay has ever truly breathed their cause, but it still feels like a punch to the gut. Cassian must feel the same, but even stronger—he has lived as a part of the Rebellion for much longer than Kay has.

Kay looks at Cassian, but the kid doesn’t move from his spot. Just stands there, like a lost puppy. He looks even younger than he is. Kay wonders what does he look like. He’s not going to ask, though. Feeling dead or dying is enough for him.

“The disc that we got from Seetha. You can give it to them, they’ll believe. Here”—Kay fishes the disc out of his pocket, holds it up for Cassian to take—“take it. If they want to check it, they can check it. Take it.”

Kay’s healthy arm trembles ever so slightly from the exertion of holding itself up in the air. The pain in his other arm keeps pulsating, from the wound and all the way up to the shoulder, and higher, like relentless waves trying to crush the shore. Failing so far.

He should tell the kid he’s not going to help the Rebellion. His only instinct is to run, as fast and as far as he possibly can, and never come back. Once he returns Cassian back to the rebels, that is. The stubborn kid quite possibly will be the death of him. If not the kid, then his arm. And if not his arm, than the kid’s rebel friends. Or the Imperials. Suddenly the entire galaxy seems to be against him. Kay is so very tired of struggling.

“You wanted to check the boxes,” he reminds Cassian.

Поделиться35431-07-2020 23:40:04

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]He takes the disk.

As big as the moon, he thinks.

He thinks about Kay as well. He thinks about the boxes. About the disk. About Seetha. But the thought is pulsing, and pulsing, and pulsing — every second, always.

As big as the moon.

It can be anywhere. With it out there how can anyone be safe? How can anywhere be safe? A sense of danger touches Cassian and he knows it will stay with him forever. Wherever he is, whenever he is, the killer moon will be always right under his thoughts, right behind his decisions, tight next to his dreams.

"Right," he says suddenly snapping out. The hyperspace is humming outside the ship. The air is dry and smells like nothing. Kay radiating with pain. The disk is thin and solid. He is now and there are boxes, and there is the base at the end of the flight. If there is the base. If the weapon — as big as the moon...

Cassian closes eyes for a moment making is stop.

"I'll be back soon. Don't die".

He means "Don't leave me", but it sounds too selfish.

The boxes are strange, but interesting enough to distract him. He tries to open couple of them, then just listens carefully. Something is moving inside. Something is trying to scratch his way out from the other side. Slowly, lazily, as if whatever is inside knows it has all the time it needs. The most important things with boxes like this is to understand if the boxes and the locks are required to hide the things inside from the world, or to keep them from entering it.

Cassian doesn't know for sure, but he stays and fiddles with the locks. The chances to guess a code of any of them is borderline impossible. But it's better than to think about the weapon or be worried about Kay. Cassian knows he will fail, but he chooses to spend his time failing anyway.

He is right, of course. He fails. By the time he stops trying gentle scratching from the inside sound familiar, calming, safe.

He returns to the cockpit cautiously. Is Kay alive? Is he awake? The things in the boxes are still alive, so he better be too.

"Are we close?"

Поделиться35509-08-2020 21:56:56

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Kay is floating. It feels eerie, the way his limbs are too heavy and tired to be lifted yet feel almost non-existent at the same time. He sits in his seat and watches the hyperspace stretch before the cockpit. He should probably control the way they fly but he just doesn’t have any strength or will of power to do anything, so he watches. The corvette isn’t flying smoothly, it shakes and vibrates and trembles, sometimes rather violently. Cassian doesn’t come back.

Their flight is long.

Kay goes back to the time when he was just working undercover at the rebels’ base and didn’t have a care in the world about any of them. He saw the kid from time to time—the little gangly child, always orbiting Draven, or that boy Dameron, or some technicians. Kay couldn’t care less even if he wanted back then. Cassian has been just some kid that would perish when the base was obliterated, and Kay was set free. But it didn’t work out this way, did it? And all of this—his pain, his imminent death—is because Draven paired him up with the kid. Kay tries to hate Cassian for it but fails. Then he tries to hate Draven for it, which also proves to be too difficult.

“Another twenty minutes. You should probably think of something to say to your rebel friends when they ask us about all of this.”

Kay turns his head lazily—weakly—to look at Cassian, his eyelids half closed.

“I’m not dying, if that’s what you’re thinking.” He lies. “I just think it’s best they hear it from you. What’s in the boxes? Anything useful? Firearms? Ammunition?” Anything that can save your rebel friends from certain doom, he almost asks.

A part of him wishes for the planet that housed the Rebellion to be already done and destroyed by the time they arrive. Then he can drop Cassian off someplace and die painfully but quickly. Another part knows that the universe isn’t merciful enough to grant him such death, and the rebels will have him and do with him how they please. Ah, the rebels. They will find certain joy in knowing they were right all along when they didn’t trust him. Maybe not all of them. But some, some.

[nick]Kay Tooesso[/nick][status]what are the odds[/status][icon]https://s7.postimg.cc/akubc07uz/Chiwetel_Ejiofor.jpg[/icon][LZ]<a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=75#p815">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a> <div class="lz"></div>Kay Tooesso, Alliance intelligence officer[/LZ]

Поделиться35615-08-2020 19:03:07

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]"There's something alive. Don't know what it is, I couldn't open the boxes. But it's still alive. It keeps scratching."

He looks at Kay. Kay is still alive but looks like he can use an advise from those hidden things.

"I'll find the words, don't worry about. Just... Be here, okay?"

What will he say? Cassian isn't sure he'll find anything but "Run!" It might be enough. It better be enough.

He sits and looks at controls. It's funny how piloting is not scary at all. He has much, much bigger things to worry about right now. Cassian takes the controls. At first there is a loud THUD, then the corvette is swaying. Cassian pays no attention and soon the flight feels smoother.

He worries too much. He is afraid Kay will die, the Rebellion — the general — will die. He is worried about the boxes and him piloting and him choosing wrong words and killing Kay. He is worried... Well, about everything. Cassian takes a deep breath.

He breathes out.

It doesn't matter. There is a limited number of things he can do. There is no sense in worrying. He'll complete the mission by returning to the base and then — only then — he will let himself be worried about another thing.

"Right," says Cassian. "We're almost there."

He jumps from the hyperspace without thinking about a killer moon.

Only to see it.

It's massive and black. As if it devoured the light around. Cassian feels a fear creeping under the skin right to the heart.

"We are too late."

There's no sense in staying. But their Corvette is small, and Cassian stays. He sees the light — it's not warm, it's cold and too bright — forming in a black crate of the black moon. Cassian tries to look at Kay but he can't make himself to take eyes from the black moon. He can't see the base being destroyed with the planet. But he just can't not watch.

"We have to... Kay? Are you here? We can't help them, can we? "

Поделиться35723-08-2020 23:34:43

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Kay is floating. He’s floating. He’s floating. Someone’s talking to him, and he grunts in response, but that’s the only thing he feels himself able to do while floating. Floating is hard. Who would have thought? There is something alive in the boxes. Or are the boxes alive? He isn’t sure. He isn’t sure about anything anymore. Floating is weird. He feels like a balloon that someone vile filled with pain. Pain is pulsating through him. Can boxes really be alive? The voice says they’re almost there. They must be very fast, these boxes. Kay drifts in and out of sleep.

He wakes to the violent green light crushing into the planet that used to be the rebel’s base.

“Oh no,” is all he whispers.

Well, now he really can drop Cassian off someplace nice and warm and go die. The fulfillment of his fleeting desire feels hollow. He wished it wouldn’t require destroying an entire planet. It meant he’s free to go. No rebels are going to arrest him. Less sentients are going to be hunting him through the galaxy for desertion and betrayal. He should be happy. Instead he’s just tired.

Nevertheless, he pulls himself together. “Jump to hyperspace, now,” he orders Cassian in a voice that brooks no argument. “Cassian. NOW.”

First things first: they don’t know if the Rebellion was still there. They also know this is not the only Rebellion. They just have to get out of here quicker than they are detected and then figure out their next move. Kay winces from pain but helps prepare the ship for the jump back—anywhere but here, anywhere at all would be better. What’s dead is dead. They can’t fight the Death Star. They can’t stop it. The only two things they certainly can do here is die or get captured and then die. Kay is having none of it. He didn’t get them off of Coruscant for this. The kid must live.

Поделиться35828-08-2020 19:35:02

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[status]odds? what odds?[/status][icon]http://s9.uploads.ru/vxoKZ.jpg[/icon][LZ]<a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=195#p10955">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a><div class="lz-hr"></div>Cassian Andor, your trouble[/LZ]Kay's voice snaps Cassian out of the numbness that was spreading inside and outside. He hits controls blindly not able to take his eyes off what is left. Nothing is the answer.

There's almost nothing. Black rocks quickly changed to white stripes of hyperspace.

It was for rel. It's the hardest part. To believe what he just saw.

"They had time to flee," he says not particularly believing his own words. "Seetha promised to alert them. They are somewhere else. If not..."

Cassian falls silent, but he knows what to do next. There are other Rebellions. He'll find one, he'll join one. This moment he can imagine himself even joining Saw Gerrera's partisans. Anyone who is still ready to fight is good for him. Anything that will keep him too busy to remember what he has just seen is fine. And Kay... Well, it's much easier now.

He chuckles with bitter grin.

"We'll go to Alderaan. They might be scared, but they will help. We'll shove you into a bacta tank and you will be fine. On Alderaan no one has to know. No one has to know at all."

But he looks bad. He looks worse then back on Coruscant. It means the time is against them.

Kay probably looked for some medicine, but Cassian didn't. He was too worried, he didn't pay attention. And he has a distinctive feeling he's better not trust Kay with anything important right now. There might be some bacta. Or something else. Anything. A bottle of whiskey will do. Anything to wipe the pain off the Kay's face.

He has lost the Rebellion... No.

If.

If he has lost it, he doesn't want to loose Kay as well.

He doesn't care about cargo anymore. Instead he searches through sections and find not bacta, but a bottle with muddy something. It can be bactade. Or something bacta-flavored. If anyone if the Galaxy would want to drink something that tactes like bacta.

"Drink," he says putting the bottle in front of Kay. "It will help you, I promise."

He should wait until Kay feels better, but he has nothing to do anymore and because of that he just can't wait.

"The Empire has won? It's over now, isn't it?"

Поделиться35906-09-2020 20:05:44

Автор: K-2SO
Гость

Kay moves slowly, every one of his moves calculated, careful. Cassian looks like he’s ready to send them into hyperspace without any plan or route, or even point B, so Kay has to punch that in himself. His heart is thrumming in his ears, a high whirring sound, too loud. Sometimes Kay wishes he was a droid—droids never feel this messy. Droids never feel, period. The ship jumps awkwardly, and Kay slumps back in his seat, too tired from exertion. They’re not dead. They’re not dead and they are moving away from the Death Star. Kay puts a mental tick next to a point in his plan of keeping Cassian—and himself, by extension, for now—alive.

Alderaan sounds like an extremely distant destination. Kay considers it for a few moments and adds it to the end of their route. Cassian is right about one thing—if anything, they will not turn the kid down. After all, Bail Organa is one of the rebels, is he not? Kay isn’t sure, it’s just his deductions, nothing certain. He might be mistaken. If the Rebellion is dead, and Alderaanians want no part in it anymore—you won’t be able to blame them, really—then it will be just a very long journey for nothing.

Kay suddenly realizes his eyes are closed and have been for a while. A distant thought about living boxes crosses his mind and disappears when he opens his eyes. Cassian puts some bottle in front of him, and Kay takes it, not even thinking about it, mechanically, opens it, drinks what’s inside. It tastes like crap, but he doesn’t seem to notice or doesn’t really care. It doesn’t really make him feel better, he thinks he might be feverish, his forehead feels hot, his body—burning on the outside and too cold on the inside. But it makes him just a tiny bit stronger. At least, strong enough to stop feeling like he’s floating. It won’t last long, though, Kay is pretty sure about that.

“It’s not over,” he says quite a bit louder than he thought he could at this point. What was that thing Cassian gave him? “It just got more complicated, more dangerous. But it isn’t over, it’s never over. You’re alive, aren’t you?” He doesn’t say that about himself. By his own calculations, he might be dead in a matter of days if he doesn’t take care of his arm. He isn’t inclined to, not really. He just wants the kid alive and well, whatever happens to himself doesn’t really matter. Kay is too tired of this constant surviving. “As long as you’re alive, Cassian, as long as any one of the rebels is alive, it isn’t over yet.”

***

VI.03 BBY

Kay is looking at the ship hovering above the holotable with his arms crossed. The Ashmead’s Lock, a prison for the most dangerous rebels in the galaxy, constructed to hold them while they are awaiting their “celebratory beheading”. On the one hand, he isn’t surprised that their sources led them here. On the other hand, why couldn’t it be something more easily penetrable? Like a ground prison or something? He’s too old for this.

The past eight years have taken a toll on Kay. His arm, the one that got badly injured on Coruscant, is miraculously still with him. The scar on it never healed, a dark pink mark on his skin. He never liked short sleeved clothing anyway. He grew even more silent, a shadow following Cassian wherever he went. His fierce loyalty belonged to the kid still, not the Rebellion, not the Empire. Just the kid. That was the first thing he told the rebels they discovered some time after fleeing the Death Star. He said it plain and short, “The kid goes—I go. The kid stays—I stay. The kid dies—it would mean I have died first, and you don’t have to worry about me. The kid dies because of you—I will come back to either haunt you or hunt you. Depends on your luck. Am I making myself clear?”

Apparently, he did.

The appearance of the Death Star made their lives so much harder. Everyone grew afraid and lost, some of the rebels even laying down their arms and giving up. “It’s too much,” and “There is nothing we can do against it”, and the rest of their excuses—Kay heard so many he lost count. But some of the rebels persevered.

Kay turns his head to look at the kid. The kid isn’t really a kid anymore—Cassian is in his early twenties now, an adult. A young one anyway. It didn’t help with his general character, though, not one bit. Otherwise why are they still among the rebels? A less stubborn person would give up and do something else with their life. Sometimes Kay thinks he made a big mistake when he gave the kid that little speech on how it wasn’t over yet as long as Cassian still lived. But then again, maybe he would have been dead for a long time if it wasn’t for that short pep-talk. The kid didn’t only survive himself, he somehow managed to make Kay survive too. That alone is worth all the loyalty in the world.

“The probability of us joining general Draven in that prison is high. Very high. And by joining, I mean as prisoners. Very high,” he stresses, already knowing it will change nothing. Every person from the Chandrillan Rebellion they managed to track down over the years after all that destruction is precious, but general Draven is precious on a whole different level. Kay respects that, but he still warns the kid, just as always.

[nick]Kay Tooesso[/nick][status]what are the odds[/status][icon]https://i.postimg.cc/LhdxJ0fk/kay-2.jpg[/icon][LZ]<a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=75#p815">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a><div class="lz-hr"></div>Kay Tooesso, doesn’t actually care about your Rebellion, but has to pretend he does, because Cassian[/LZ]

Поделиться36023-09-2020 21:45:03

Автор: Cassian Andor
Гость

[icon]https://forumupload.ru/uploads/0018/1a/00/59/628110.gif[/icon][status]odds? what odds?[/status][LZ]<a href="https://swmedley.rusff.me/viewtopic.php?id=195#p10955">IDENTIFICATION CARD</a><div class="lz-hr"></div>Cassian Andor, rebel[/LZ]Cassian shrugs with a sharp grin and fixes a wrinkle on his uniform. There's no need to wear it right now, but he does anyway to get used to it again. Kay taught him how to act as an Imperial officer a long time ago, but last two weeks he has spent lurking in and out of shadows, meeting with other rebels and picking pieces of data from informants. He can snap from one persona to another with ease, but this time he doesn't want to risk it. So imperial demeanor is creeping slowly into him.

It's not just about him. Well, no, it is. The first thing Cassian was worried about was what he'd say about Kay. He said nothing, by the way. No one asked, no one really cared. After the first attack of the Death star there weren't many of them who stayed — either alive or just stayed instead of running away. Anyone who stayed was important enough to not ask too much questions. The second important thing was making sure Kay will get better. And then they had to stay alive and to get jobs done. And Cassian had to grew up as fast as he could, to learn as much as Kay was willing to teach him and a little bit more. There were too many important things, but, well, yeah, he always wanted to meet his general again one day. To let him know he is fine, to tell him that nothing is over yet. As long as he is alive. Well, they. After all this time it's always "they". Kay is his mentor, his friend, his partner and his personified reason. He is a proof that the Empire will lose the war just as it has lost the battle for Kay's loyalty.

They will win. They are still alive, after all this years, for a reason.

And there are whispers sneaking through the fear and wariness. Rumors about blueprints pointing to a flaw built into the Death star. They are stored somewhere, and although the intelligence is the most important part of the Alliance — Rebellions, forced to unite to stay alive — no one knows where are they stored. It's one of the old places. One of those that may be known to someone who was in the Intelligence long time ago and served the Empire prior to that.

With that it's not just about him. Every rebel of the Galaxy was looking for general Draven's whereabouts. But it is about him, so Cassian is the one who signs up for a job dragging Kay along with him.

He grins again.

"Well, then we'll simply start a prison riot. We'll be fine. It's time to light it up."