Smoke billowed from the front of the taxi rising high into the sky as Ash and Gacen stumbled out
"god damn it are you sure this things busted" Gacen asked the Rodian who responded with a string of Rodese curse words "ok I'm sorry for falling onto your taxi I'll pay for the damage" Gacen enjoyed having money, it certainly made these types of conversations easier. He passed over the credit chip and turned to Ash, she was surveying the area or at least trying to she was still pretty delirious from the fall
"that smokes gonna be seen for miles we gotta split and fast" Ash had a good point, this plan certainly hadn't been the smoothest he'd ever come up with "where are we I don't think I've ever been to this part of Nar Shaddaa" Gacen didn't recognise this place either and he'd been on Nar Shaddaa an awful lot.
He tried to check his holopad but there was no data on this area "I can't say I know I've never been here before and there's no data for this place" he paused looking around "we should probably keep a low profile" Ash nodded and they made their way out to the rest of the slum. It all seemed pretty normal to Gacen, streets with gazebos and tents littering the edge of the streets, tall buildings overlooking the street and broken down speeders. Gacen had always thought Nar Shaddaa was a marvel of sentient interference, the place probably didn't resemble the actual moon at all, he hoped his planet never ended up like that. As he looked around he noticed the people seemed off, not in a dangerous way but usually gangs would congregate in different parts of the slums and patrol, but here… well here anyone he could see seemed alone and like they were avoiding others.
"does something seem off to you Gacen" Ash seemed to have picked up on it too, how could you not it's everywhere
"yeah it's kinda um quiet" quiet was defiantly not synonymous with Nar Shaddaa, Gacen didn't like this
"my thoughts exactly we should move quick" Gacen nodded in agreement and began to walk a bit faster as they tried to find the exit
"first chance I get I'm stealing a speeder" Ash surprisingly nodded in agreement. They walked in silence until they came to a crossroads
"well what now" Ash said clearly frustrated
"uhhh right I guess" Gacen thought the smaller passage could mean a way out
"ok but this better not bite me in the ass" Gacen nodded and they headed down the corridor "so what next?"
seems like a silly question "huh what do you mean we head this way" Gacen said frowning
"I mean with the whole finding Risha thing" oh that made more sense
Gacen hesitated before he spoke up "well we have a small lead so I say follow that up" he paused looking at Ash "I mean if you're fine with that"
Ash smiled "of course I am but what lead it went south before we got any good information" Ash was right if they could've gotten a lot more information that would've been helpful, but they'd have to make do
"the Champion of the Great Hunt is an old friend of mine" Ash didn't look surprised and Gacen didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing "we did a couple jobs together years ago hopefully she'll help us out" Gacen thought she would she'd never been the grudge type.
Ash shrugged "I guess that's as good a plan as any" before striding ahead. As they turned the corner they were met with an odd site; forcefields on each side of the wall like a prison in fact the whole place reminded him of a… oh oh dear
"hey um Ash I think we stumbled into a prison camp" Gacen tensed up, as the realisation hit him all the memories of his own incarceration started flooding back
"yeaah ok um let's uh just get through here and uh you know run" that seemed like a good plan, as long as it didn't involve them dying right now it was considered a good plan in his eyes though. They slowly crept forwards trying to avoid looking into the cells each side of them, they made their way about halfway through the chamber before they heard a raspy voice
"well well well someone is out of their cell when they shouldn't beeeee" his words were barely audible but yet conveyed a strange presence Gacen couldn't quite place. Gacen turned to see a huge human male up against the forcefield, all his veins could be seen pulsating as the hulking form stared right at him
Gacen responded flusteredly "oh um no not us we um are just passing through we uh aren't inmates" the man just stood their laughing to himself with a raspy croak
Ash grabbed his arm "don't interact with them it'll only cause trouble" she was right Gacen recollected himself and they began moving to the end of the chamber
As they did they could here the voice speak up "hahaha it doesn't matter if they find you you'll be in here like the rest of us" what the fuck was that guy on, probably what got him in prison. They hurriedly exited the chamber and arrived into another large slum area
"shit there's more" Ash cursed as she looked around for another exit. Gacen began looking around for an exit too but just saw more long streets.
Before they had a chance to find out however they heard "THERE THEY ARE THE TWO FUGITIVES, GET THEM" over some form of megaphone. As Gacen turned he saw a bunch of guards ready to give chase.
"shit" Gacen grabbed Ash's hand and immediately they ran into a nearby alley
"what's the plan" Ash exclaimed as they ran down the alley
"well so far run and I'm working on the next part" Gacen skidded round at the end of the alley and dived into another hoping Ash would follow.
"oh perfect" Ash shouted sarcastically. Well at least she was following, Gacen could here the sounds of the guards gaining on them and knew he would have to be creative to lose them. Diversions? what's a good diversion? he realised as he went to drop a smoke grenade but when he went to get one none were left damn it shit that was his go to. He looked around and saw a stack of large pipes on a precarious girder perfect, he drew his pistol shooting them loose and then dropping into a slide. The pipes began to fall as he slid along the ground, boy he was cutting this close as he saw the pipes falling above his head he closed his eyes expecting pain but surprisingly when he opened his eyes he was fine. He stood up quickly looking to see he had made a small barricade hopefully enough to stop their cars, suddenly he saw a flash of blue land next to him. How on earth did Ash jump over? not important, he sprinted ahead as they found their way out back into the streets. Ash moved a dumpster in front of the alley as Gacen looked for an exit. He could see across the way the taxi area, perfect he could steal a speeder, he began to run towards it but as he reached the other side of the road guards swarmed from around the corner blocking the way. Crap Fuck Shit he turned and saw guards still on his tail, the only option was the door in front of him, he bolted towards it luckily it opened as he did. As he entered he was met with the strong smell of body odour, he could see conveyer belts, casting buckets and vats all around, must be a smelting factory perfect. He quickly ran up one of the cat walks before jumping onto a conveyer belt leading up; he could escape the factory from the top. He looked back to see Ash had taken her own route choosing to swing up and over onto a catwalk, she grabbed onto a light sticking out of the wall used the momentum to jump and grab onto the nearby catwalk, then used her swinging momentum to shift herself to the top of it in one fluid motion. How on earth did she do that Gacen thought as he reached the top of the conveyer, he suddenly felt himself lose his balance as he was teetering on the edge of something. He turned around to see a giant bright burning reddish brown vat in front of him
"shit shit shit" he let out as he tried to balance himself, he felt himself lose his footing as he began to fall, but then he felt his scarf catch against his neck making him gasp for air. He felt himself hoisted up and saw Ash on the walkway next to him, did he even weigh anything?
"ok that's why we don't get on conveyer belts you doofus" Ash said condescendingly Gacen nodded no time to argue his point. They ran along the walkway he could see the roof exit on the ladder ahead, as they ran he could see bolts of energy fly past, looks like the guards had caught up. He reached the ladder and quickly scrambled up helping Ash up after him, he then shot out the ladder supports causing it to fall off it's hinges. They made their way to the edge of the building where Gacen could see guards swarming the ground buuuut there was a very clear path to the taxis in the air he only needed a glider. "GACEN YOU BETTER HAVE A PLAN" Ash shouted as Gacen looked around for something to use before he saw a pylon hanging from the ceiling of the sector roof.
"yeah yeah I do I just need some rope" he scanned the roof for suitable tools YES on next to the ladder there was a fire hose. He scrambled over to it collecting a long enough section and cut it off, as he did he could hear guards at the broken ladder and it wouldn't be long before they figured out a way up. He scurried back over to Ash with the length of hose trailing behind him
Ash looked wide eyed at the hose "you have GOT to be kidding me" fair criticism but not the time.
Gacen sighed "just trust me" he swung the hose out and threw the hose end up to the pylon, please wrap around please wrap around, the hose went flying over and then wrapped itself round the horizontal section of the pylon. YES perfect, he made sure the hose had little slack and then gestured to Ash to grab hold. She hesitated looking around for another option but as she hesitated a Guard mad his way on to the roof
Ash looked around awkwardly "ugggh fine" she grabbed hold of the hose and they ran towards the edge of the building
Gacen grinned as they jumped "wheeeeeeeee" they fell for a couple seconds before the hose caught then and they began swinging towards the taxi area. At the middle of the swing they came pretty close to the floor hearing blaster shots trying to shoot at them and some coming very close. But as they reached the apex they were out of the sectors borders and jumped off landing on the taxi pad with a bumpy roll. Gacen quickly got up and pushed the droid out of the taxi turning on the ignition
"but this is an unauthorised departure, you can't" the droid pleaded as Gacen shoved him out
Ash stepped over it's head and got it "yeah that's totally the worst of our crimes today" as she got in Gacen pumped the accelerator and they sped out of the district.
"we gotta get back to the ship like right now!" Gacen said pushing the taxi to it's limit, hopefully they had outrun whatever all that was.
Ash slinked down in her chair and quietly said "I hate when you're right"…