Tak stared Lard Nar down. The two had been working on defense for a couple weeks now, even during the travel to a planet she'd never heard before. "You know, I don't approve of the recent plan."
He rolled his shoulders to loosen them up. "So? I'm the leader. What I say goes."
She charged him, and he grabbed her arms and started to push. "Okay, now push with your core muscles." She instructed as she pushed back.
"My what muscles?"
"You know, your abdominals."
"How the heck do I do that?" He was starting to give.
"Pretend you're doing a sit-up."
He pushed harder, and eventually got her to fall over. "Good job, Lard Nar!" She said as she peeled him off "I recommend doing sit-ups whenever you get the chance. Our lesson ends now, leaving us..." She glanced at the screen that kept Lard Nar up to date on what was going on, and saw that they would land soon on a planet called Poss. "... maybe twenty minutes before we land?" She got up and made for the door.
"Tak, before you touch the surface of that planet, I want you to arm yourself." Lard Nar ordered.
"Right away Sir." She went off to the ship's armory, where the door scanned her and let her in after confirming she was a Resisty member. She selected a small pistol and clipped a holster to her belt to carry it.
She was ready.
She made her way to the main chamber of the ship to catch Lard Nar's speech. "Alright! We are currently in the kingdom of Couixer, which is one of the superpowers of Poss. Keep in mind that the natives have only reached the technological point of making steel weapons, so try not to use too much of our own. Now, I want you all to split off into groups – if we all storm the capital at once, then the guards will be alerted, and the last thing we need is to make a bad impression. If all goes well, a Tallest will be in our hands by the end of this little escapade. This is our greatest moment! Let's go!"
The entire Resisty cheered and separated into little clusters. Someone grabbed Tak's hand; it was Jio Sari, grinning as she usually was. "Come on, Tak, be in my group!"
"Okay!" Tak followed – or rather, was dragged – to a rather mixed group. Mil Tayne greeted them and pried Jio Sari off of Tak. "Hey." he said and smiled shyly. An eyepatch covered his ruined eye. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then Jio interrupted him. "Okay, everyone, this is Tak, she'll be in our group."
Someone behind Tak coughed nervously. "Uh, I'm sorry, I... think that group over there's a little small! Who knows what could happen to them!" They slithered over to the "small" group and said something about not being able to trust an Irken. Tak decided she wanted nothing to do with that person, and guessed that if she was still Irken, she would have plotted for that person to have a little "accident."
"Okay, can we go now?" Jio whined. "I want to get a head start on all the others!"
The group unanimously agreed, but as they went to leave, their former member approached Jio Sari and pulled her aside. "You know, she's going to mess your group up horribly." They cast a glare filled with contempt towards Tak. "How do you know that she won't mess us all up? That she's not a spy? My advice is to kill her out there and say that those reptiles did it."
Tak cleared her throat. "I can hear you!" she shouted. "And for your information, I cut my ties with the Empire when they decided I wasn't good enough to be Irken anymore. I'm sure most others like me agree."
"I'm sure you'd go back, given the chance!" They snarled and left as fast as they could. Jio Sari made a rude gesture at them and waved her group on. They marched out into a nice, grassy, plain. A town sat in the distance. The town was where the Tallest were, nestled safely in the palace. "Okay, so I did some research, and I found out members of religious institutions can pretty much go anywhere, including the palace." Jio Sari said as she pulled out robes from a bag she'd carried out with her. "I got a robe made for everybody. Once we put these on, we'll be able to sneak into the place and they won't even question us!" Tak took hers, and when she slipped it on, she found that the hood contained a veil that covered her face. She watched as Jio put her hands in front of her face like she was praying and followed suit. The others did too as they made for the capitol. Eventually, a Possian rode past on a strange beast. It reminded Tak of a race from a game she'd played on Earth to pass the time. If she remembered correctly, the race was called "Argonian," and looked exactly like Possians. She'd eventually gotten bored of the game and labeled it as a waste of time.
The Possian halted his beast and bowed his head in respect. Tak heard Mil Tayne breathe a sigh of relief besides her. Inside her mind, she did too. She didn't want to get in a fight that early into the mission.
The small party hustled into the gates of town. The whole planet was really starting to remind Tak of the Elder Scrolls game, and she was starting to wonder if she'd landed on the world it took place in. She resisted the urge to giggle at that thought. She needed to get serious, not think about some silly game from a planet she was sure she'd never touch the surface of again. In a few moments she'd be in the palace, kidnapping a Tallest! The mission required her full undivided attention.
The palace door loomed above the small group. The guards at that post bowed their heads just as the beast-rider in the field had done. Wow, they must really trust their holy people, Tak thought as Jio Sari told a guard who they wanted to see. He nodded and led the party to the throne room. There, the King of Couixer sat relaxed on a gilded throne, with the Tallests sitting on each side of him on intricately-carved wooden chairs. This is it, Tak thought nervously. She glanced at the back of Jio Sari's head, to see what she had in store.
Jio stepped forward. "Your Majesty. I and my Faith-Siblings have come to see if the rumors are true, that two men really came down from the sky with an army to defend us from harm." She nodded towards Tallest Red. "It appears that they are."
"Dearest Sister, I assume you've traveled from far away." The King bowed his head in reverence. "I would be honored if you spent a few nights at the palace."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." A guard stepped forward to lead the group to the guest rooms. As they left, Tak watched Tallest Purple gawk at them. Why is he looking at us like that? she thought. Is he... jealous?
Tak's room was rather plain. A simple bed sat in the corner, and a few bookshelves lined the walls. She didn't get to test the bed, because Jio Sari burst in and dragged her to her room, along with the rest of the team. "Okay, phase two!" Jio whispered. "We're going to wait for nightfall and then we'll sneak into one of the Tallest's rooms, knock him out, and get him to the ship!"
"Okay, sounds simple, but how do we knock him out?" Mil Tayne asked.
"Well, uh, I was going to bring a can of knock-out gas, but... I left it behind. So we're gonna have to do it the old fashioned way."
"Why don't we try tricking him?" Tak suggested. "Tallest Purple will be easier to fool then Red. We'll tell him that we want him to escort us around town, and that it would be an insult if he doesn't do it. Then, we'll get him somewhere secluded and knock him out, dress him in a robe -we've got a few extras, right?"
"Yeah, we do."
"Okay, good. We dress him in the robe and 'help' him out of the city. Our two tallest members will support him."
"Well, that definitely sounds better than just clobbering him and dragging him out. We should probably wait a while, though. We don't want trouble for the poor holy people we're impersonating." Jio Sari waved everybody out, and Tak went back to her room, sat on her bed, and picked up a book. When she opened it, she found that it was full of unintelligible markings. This must be their language, she guessed. The words looked like they were hand-written, and when she turned the page, she found an intricate painting. The colors were very, very vivid, and there were even tiny patches of gold. How much did this cost in their currency? she asked herself as she flipped through more of the pages, looking for more paintings to stare at while she waited.
After she'd gone through three more books, Mil Tayne came to her door. "Tak, there's been an incident. Another team's shown up and they're taking a more direct approach!"
Tak threw the book over her shoulder. "Really? This could be the distraction we've been waiting for!" She followed him to the courtroom, where other members of the Resisty were threatening the Tallest. She leaned over to Mil Tayne and whispered, "Okay, you go over there and call the Tallest to you. I'll grab Purple and get him out of here."
"Got it." He ran near the giant door in. "Hey! Over here!" he shouted while Tak ran up to Tallest Purple. Without waiting for acknowledgment, she grabbed his hand and started pulling him out. He resisted a little, but relented as he realized that she was trying to help him avoid capture.
When they beat it out of the castle, she told him that she saw one of their ships out in the plains earlier that day, and that perhaps he'd be safe if she got him in there. "Does that sound okay?" she asked as they ran into a stable and stole a beast.
"Yes! Get me on that ship and off this stupid planet!" He demanded. He's just like I remember him, Tak thought as she helped him onto the saddle, then followed him up. "I will, just give me a moment." She found the reins and pulled back on them, making the beast grunt and plod backwards out of its stall. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a member of the other team running towards them. She dug the ends of her legs into the beast's flanks, making it squeal and start charging. The thing was surprisingly fast for its body shape, to the point that the buildings surrounding them seemed to blur together. They left the city and made for the Resisty's Spittle Runner. "Y'know, I don't remember a Spittle Runner being this close," Purple shouted over the wind. "Are you sure it's ours?"
"Of course it's yours." she answered. "You own all of the ships, don't you?" In her mind, she thought, Please, Vortian deities, don't let him bail on me.
"Those people you saw have stolen ships from us. That could be one of them!" He pointed at the Spittle Runner and squirmed behind her. "I don't really want to find out the hard way!"
"Don't jump!" she warned him. "You could hurt yourself!"
He squirmed again. "No! I don't wanna go!" He launched himself to the ground and cried out in as the beast trampled his legs. Tak halted the beast and got off, leaning over him.
"See, that was foolish. Now let's get going before they get you."
He winced as he sat up. "Your voice -ow- sounds familiar..."
Oh no! He recognizes my voice! What to do, what to do... "Must be a coincidence. Come on. Up you go." She grabbed his hand and pulled him up as he hissed in pain, then jerked his hand away. "No! I'm not going with you!"
"Alright, fine." She reached under her robe and took out her pistol. "I guess there's no point in keeping up the facade. Come with me or I'll shoot." she said as she pointed the pistol at him.
He gulped as he stared at her. "The rest of your little group... they weren't really holy people, were they?" He said as he slowly got on the beast again.
"You're right," she said as she crawled into the saddle and pulled back her hood, since the charade was broken. "Do you remember me?" she asked as she spurred the beast on. "Last we saw each other, you were deciding on which body to put me in."
He whimpered. "...Sorry?"
Tak ignored him as the ship came into view. "Whoa." The beast halted at her command, and she slid off and waited for Purple to follow. He got off the beast, winced, and floated up the gangplank sullenly as she followed him closely, making sure he didn't try anything funny. As soon as he entered, two Resisty members grabbed him and clamped a bowl-like device over his PAK. He gasped in shock, then sighed. "Alright. Take me to your crappy leader, I guess." he moaned. They led him off, and Tak followed them like a young hogulus followed its mother – closely, and ever-watchful. She didn't want anybody taking credit for what she'd done.
In the main chamber, Lard Nar was sitting in the captain's chair, reclined in a lazy way. He sat up instantly when he saw who was being dragged into the room, his eyes wide with delight. "Wow! A few hours is all it took? That's amazing!" He hopped up and ran over. "Who did it?"
"My group did, and a different group kinda helped." Tak said. "You see, they were taking the direct approach, and I made him think I was helping him get away."
"Clever. Take him to the storage room and lock in there. It's not a cell, but it will have to do." The two Resisty members nodded and dragged Purple off unceremoniously as Lard Nar put his arm around Tak. "Good job out there, soldier. To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to bring him in. No offense, of course."
"None taken." She didn't know why she'd take offense to that statement. After all, she was only one of the many members of the Resisty. She was certain he didn't doubt her abilities, either. "So now what?"
"Uhh.. you can go back to your room I guess." He gave her an apologetic look. "We could also do another lesson."
"No thanks. I think once per day is enough." she said, silently pleased that her student was so eager to learn. She poked him in the belly, eliciting a small chuckle. "Did you do what I asked you to?"
"Well, I've been overseeing the mission, making sure nothing went wrong. It would look kinda weird if I did sit-ups too."
"You've got a point there. Come on, let's go to your room and then you can do that." She started to walk off towards the corridor that would take her there.